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.
Thursday. Metcon, 30 bear complex @ 70kg. Time, 18.34
Barbell conditioning, and muscle endurance. Clear agenda for Thursday.
Metcon. Time, 18.34
30 x bear complex, for time:
Power clean
Front squat
Push jerk
Back squat
Thruster
Barbell @ 70kg all the way
This felt like a good idea the day before. Not anymore after 10 reps. In my mind the demons tried to hold me back and quit the workout at 20 reps but I kept mentally strong and continued forward. This sucked ass big time, no doubt, but it was a pleasure at the same time. Loved it!
No wonder the last lift (thrusters right from back squat) of every rep was the hardest. One rep constituted of those five movements (clean, squat, jerk, squat, thruster). Took 30 "reps" of that combination for time. In my mind I kept pushing through in sets of 5 reps. After every 5 reps I tapped the timer to see how my pace changes. Split times were 2:17, 2:52, 3:18, 3:23, 3:31, 3:11. That means 6 sets of 5 reps.
Wednesday. Gymnastics, emom x 12min: odd 10 hspu, even 10 pistols. Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg. Metcon, 10 deads (100-130kg), 10 box. Time, 6.18.
Got one hour to improve my fitness. There was some good planning so I found a way to sneak three pieces in one session to get more volume. Gymnastics, strength and conditioning.
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute x 12 minutes
Odd min, 10 handstand push-ups
Even min, 10 pistol squats
After short warm-up I just threw myself against the wall and went for a set of handstand push-ups, 10 reps per set. I knew hspu's would probably go well but pistols were a mystery. Haven't done those in a while, and I'd say my leg strength is not at its highest level of all times. Left leg was good but right felt a notch weaker. Still, this portion was okay!
Strength.
Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg
110kg is 80% of my 1RM and something I can move nicely for small sets. That's why I did these every 2:00. Recovery was definitely enough. Sets were good all the way. I'm waiting how the game changes as there gonna be bigger sets at this weight.
Metcon. Time, 6.18
10 deadlifts @ 100kg
15 box
10 deadlifts @ 110kg
15 box
10 deadlifts @ 120kg
15 box
10 deadlifts @ 130kg
15 box
Deadlifts and box jumps are quite a combo, you probably know that. Idea was to do 10 deads with ascending weights, and 15 box jumps between deads. Focus was to do both elements unbroken, and I got that. Got to admit I wanted to drop the bar on 120kg and 130kg sets but got through those thoughts and finished with pride.
Wednesday. Complex, clean + clean + push jerk (up to 90kg). Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg. Metcon, 10rds of: 3 bar mu, 10 back squat @ 50kg. Gymnastics, 50 t2b.
Oly.
Build up to a heavy complex of:
Squat clean + squat clean + push jerk
60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95kg (failed at the jerk)
Felt pretty good until some point. From then on the jerk wasn't that cool anymore. Didn't drop enough on the last attempt @ 95kg. After that I took some lighter clean and jerks @ 85, 90kg
Strength.
Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg
This is part of the program at weightlifting101.
Metcon. TIme, 12.16
10 rounds of:
3 bar muscle-ups
10 back squats @ 50kg
Skills and leg burn. Nice combo. My legs are sore now in the evening. I guess this one worked.
Main focus was on killing my legs. Goal reached. Front squat doubles in the beginning and a longer amrap in the end. Legs and breathing were definitely taking big hits.
Strength.
Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg
This is something I have taken from weightlifting101. Not being that strict with it though. Regarding the schedule. There should be squatting 3 times a week but I squat when I squat. Then I follow that program. The sets are destined at 80% which is less than I am used to go when I squat.
Metcon. Result, 9 rounds
20min amrap of:
5 front squats @ 70kg (from ground)
10 burpees
20m sled push @ 55kg (+sled)
This was unbroken stuff for sure but it got tough pretty soon. Legs were under tension continuously so I had to take some recovery before and after sled push. However, the round times stayed quite consistent, and I'm happy on the performance. It was a sweaty 20 minutes and felt like pure crossfit. Good session!
Friday. Snatch / Ohs e2mom complex @ 60kg for 16min. Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg. Intervals, every 3:00, for 15min: 1 rope + 4x10m light sled push. Hang power clean triples, build up (up to 95kg). Accessory, 50 hspu.
This time I took my time at the gym. It turned out to be an effective session and I moved around between different portions. Started with snatch complex, then front squats for strength, intervals, more olympic lifts, and gymnastics work.
Oly.
Snatch + Overhead squat complex @ 60kg
Every 2:00 minutes, perform
1+3
1+3
2+2
2+2
3+1
3+1
4+0
4+0
This one was stolen from one athlete who's been working at Toni's Box the past week. It sounded like a great complex for improving snatch. Started with one snatch and more overhead squats, then changed so that the number of snatches increased and ohs decreased. The barbell remained at 60kg at all times.
There were some reps I wasn't satisfied with. It's not a good rep in my books if you have to catch it by stepping forward. You should be able to catch it where you land. My warm-up was also short and hips weren't feeling mobile so I stayed above parallel. Other than that the barbell felt good all the way and there were no misses at all. It's cool to see good things are happening at 60kg.
Strength.
Every 2:00, front squats 6x2 @ 110kg
Feels like an eternity since squatting. Last time it was back squats, this time front squats. Felt stiff and slow from the very first set. However, on the video it looks pretty good. Okay, it's still not the most explosive out of the hole but elbows seem to point straight ahead and form stays good.
Sprints, one rope up and down, then a sled that only had 4x10kg bumpers on. Went down and back for 4 legs of the matt. Felt miserable on the legs. I got 5 of these sets completed, one round every 3 minutes.
Oly.
Hang power cleans, build up to a heavy triple (40, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95kg)
We were pretty much ready and everything had been performed what we had thought of. I threw in the idea of Toni joining me to pull some barbell from hang position. We basically didn't have any plans. I took a triple, and he followed. Round by round we added a bit weight until we reached something that could be described as a personal record for both of us. Toni was doing these as hang squat cleans.
I don't remember taking 3 reps of hang power cleans ever @ 95kg. It was remarkable for me! Gainz. Toni also reckoned that weight to be his record for a triple @ 95kg. Great work mister!
Gymnastics.
50 handstand push-ups
In the end I did quick gymnastics piece to burn shoulders and improve skills. Goal was to do sets of 10 reps with short rest periods. Those recovery times were on point. I got to 40 with 10-rep sets, then 2x5 to finish it. I was satisfied to these at this point of the session.
Toni did benchmark workout Cindy of which you can see the last reps here
Monday. Every 90sec: front squat triples, ascending loads (up to 120kg).
Early morning workout. Sneaked in a bit over half an hour time slot and I haven't squatted in a while so it was a no brainer. Did some hip circles, foam rolling and active stretching, then loaded up to 60kg, and started moving. That worked well as a warm-up.
Strength.
Every 90 seconds, perform a front squat triple
60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120kg
These felt actually pretty good. Added some weight after every set (every 1:30min). Recovery was enough, at least for these sets. Had I gone heavier, recovery would have become an issue at some point. The heaviest loads were tough. I was confident on every set but it probably felt awkward because I haven't been under such heavy weights lately. God I've missed heavy weights =)
Sunday. Tng power clean and push jerk, build up (up to 90kg). Emom x 15min: 1st min 5 power clean @ 70kg. 2nd min 5 front squat @ 70kg. 3rd min 5 push jerk @ 70kg.
We came back home Sunday evening. I unpacked the stuff and headed to the gym. Below you can see what happened. That 90kg push jerk without resting it at the front rack position was huge for me. First time weight this style. Beyond my dreams if you would have asked it me couple of months ago.
Overhead.
Build up to a heavy touch'n'go power clean and push jerk
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.
Monday. Every 90sec, for 8 sets: 4 tng c&j @ 70kg. Front squats 5x4, across @ 110kg. Metcon, 10min amrap of: 10 hspu, 20 ghd. Result, 160 reps.
Good session of olympic lifts, strength work and conditioning with gymnastics elements included. Yesterday's Linda made my shoulders tight and lower back sore too. It doesn't matter if the barbell is heavy or moderate weight on deadlifts, they usually have an effect on my body the following 2-3 days.
Oly.
Every 90 seconds, for 8 sets (12min)
Perform 4 touch'n'go clean and jerks @ 70kg
I added the stakes on the clean and jerks this time, and put 70kg for multiple tng reps. This is heavier and more taxing than what the safe version would be like. It's very satisfying that 70kg barbell on this movement is not intimidating nowadays. That's how I realize development has taken place over the years.
However, doing 4 c&j's without resetting the bar at any stage is another story. That should be heavy. Quick singles are easier. This was touch'n'go so it ought to be tougher. I'm very pleased with the effort shown in this piece. Got through the 8 sets as planned. I was looking to do fewer sets it felt good so I went to 8 sets.
Strength.
Front squat 5x4 @ 110kg
This was also supposed to be 4 by 4 initially. Completed one more set for fun. All weights across at 110kg. Not super heavy but I haven't squatted heavy lately and my back was killing me from yesterday's deadlifts so these were a bit conservative.
This couplet turned out to be tougher than expected. I realized during the workout that it's about being in inverted or semi-inverted position throughout the 10 minutes and using hip flexors a lot. Maybe it was exactly the burn of hip flexors and core that also made the handstand push-ups more challenging. I went unbroken for 2-3 rounds, then came off the wall after 7 reps for 1-2 rounds and then lastly 6-2-2 or something alike in the end.
Ghd's got tough, holy moly! I thought these might be possibly unbroken all the way. How wrong was I… Well, the majority was but towards the end those got gnarly big time, and I had to jump up to stand and relax my hip flexors for couple of seconds before continuing. This happened maybe 3 times in total.
Friday. Emom x 8min: clean and jerk singles (75-80kg). Emom x 8min: 5 c&j (60kg). E2mom x 16min: front squat singles (120kg).
After yesterday's recovery day it was good to get my hands on the barbell again. Purely bar work today. Starting with clean and jerks and finishing it off with front squats.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 8 minutes
1 squat clean and jerk
1-4min: 75kg
5-8min: 80kg
Somehow push jerks have felt awesome lately but today split jerks felt a lot tighter in my shoulders. Don't know how that ends up being like that. Anyway, these didn't feel natural and smooth at any stage of the session. That's why I had to stay conservative on the weights too. Compare to Monday when I did 2 reps every minute at 80kg as power clean and push jerks without resting the bar in front rack at any point.
Barbell cycling.
Every minute on the minute x 8 minutes
5 touch'n'go clean and jerks @ 60kg
This weight should probably feel lighter after having just moved 20kg heavier load. It was the shoulders though. These were not as smooth as usual and the bar path was not identical within all reps. Can't be totally satisfied with that kind of activity. Still, I'll take this as it's always a good idea to focus on barbell cycling at moderate weights.
Strength.
Every 2:00, for 16 minutes (8 sets)
1 front squat @ 120kg
Finally couple of heavier front squats. Took one rep every 2 minutes. This was rather heavy load but still doable. Point for this piece was to get my nervous system get used to loads closer to max levels.
Saturday. Emom x 20min: 5 thrusters (up to 60kg). Metcon, 10rds of: 15m sled pull with a rope, standing + 5 front squats @ 90kg.
This was a great session to say the least! I loved both of the workouts thrown at me. Okay I was the guy to write these conditioning pieces but anyway, you got the point. Rope pulls have always been awesome when I've tried them but they tend to stay in the background for quite a while before I remember to do them again. That just seems to be the pattern. I saw them at one year's Crossfit Games and that's where the idea came from.
Barbell conditioning.
Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes: 5 thrusters
1-5min: 30kg
6-10min: 40kg
11-15min: 50kg
16-20min: 60kg
Starting light, almost like a warm-up kind of approach. Just mobilized joints in upper and lower body, then grabbed the barbell and went for it. Five reps per minute. Five minute per load, then add 10kg on the bar. Last sets at 60kg. Last 10 minutes the weight got be breathing.
This was tolerable but started to get uncomfortable for sure. Next barbell would have gotten me for sure, at least at some point. It felt awkward in both of my shoulders for the latter half of this workout but other than that this was great!
Metcon.
10 rounds of:
15m sled pull with a rope, standing @ 80kg
5 front squats @ 90kg
Something little different. This hurt more in my legs than upper body which surprised me somewhat. The distance on the grass matt is 20 meters so I'd estimate this was 15m travel pulling the 80kg sled with rope.
It was an entire body burn towards the end and breathing was heavy as well. Very good mixture of elements stirred up in this one.
Sunday. Emom x 20. 1st, 15 pull-ups. 2nd, 15 wb. 3rd, 10 front squats @ 60kg. 4th, rest.
Today was a busy day even though it's Sunday. We had some errands to take care of and then there was ice hockey world championship's final day and teams are fighting for bronze, silver and gold medals. Finland was part of this dog fight but Canada took them out on the gold game. We went to to the gym for a short session with Pauliina.
Workout of the day.
Every minute on the minute x 20 minutes
1st min: 15 pull-ups
2nd min: 15 wall ball shots
3rd min: 10 front squats @ 60kg
4th min: recovery
This was not supposed to be the toughest session of them all. At first I thought about having a recovery day in the form of just jogging for a while but once wife suggested some couples retreat at the box I started gathering my gear up and was ready to pump it up!
These were unbroken sets for sure. There was practically no warm-up prior to this one. No time for that. Just mobilized some joints and then hit it. Pull-ups started to become a factor and legs were on fire, especially on the last 2 rounds. Good one!
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.
Friday. Snatch balance 5x3 (50-60kg). Karhureiret. Time, 14.35. Conditioning, 7rds of: 2min row, 2min bike.
It was a notch longer workout session today. Tried some snatch balances in the beginning to get a feeling of those after a long break. Then some old school stuff from Finland's championships some years ago. That sucked. Then conditioning piece in the end.
Oly.
Snatch balance 5x5 (50, 50, 60, 60, 60kg)
These have been rare in the past months. I had that wrist issue earlier in the year and that caused I haven't done either these nor overhead squats with proper weights at all. It still felt kind of funny even though I have no problems in my wrists and haven't had in a long time.
It was cool to get these done. I'm looking forward to doing more of these accessory stuff for snatch in the future. I'm certain these will build up the confidence for the actual snatch too.
The video is unedited for couple of min
Karhureiret. Time, 14.35. Compare to 15.5.2013
10 back squats @ 100kg
50 kettlebell swings @ 32kg
20 front squats @ 80kg
40 box jumps
30 overhead squats @ 50kg
30 toest-to-bar's
The reason is unknown but I was done already on the swings. Literally I was trying to create excuses not to finish this workout. Luckily didn't but for some reason my body refused to work ideally, even though I had lots of passion to attack this workout.
Yes I got through this faster than before with heavier weights but I can't be satisfied of the effort fully. Especially the kettlebell swings and box jumps stayed to haunt in my head. Had to break both of them. Kettlebell swings more than once. No reason for that. And this was probably the first time ever pausing on the box jumps. Body was just completely in shut down mode. Somehow I got through this and maybe the last two elements went better than I assumed at that point of the workout. Back squats were unbroken, front squats were 5's and overhead squats were 10-8-7-5 reps.
Conditioning. Total of 28 minutes
7 rounds of:
2min row
2min bike
Damned I was over and out after that metcon. Yesterday my gym turned 1 year old so they had a birthday party. There was some leftover cake at the lobby. Once I saw it after the metcon I felt weak in my body and needed to fuel up. That felt like a perfect idea =) Huh, it was delicious!
After some recovery I jumped on the rower and bike combo, 2 minutes each with a running clock for 28 minutes total. That was a good end to the session!
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.
Tuesday. Clean and jerk complex. Start at 40kg, add 5kg, till failure.
It was great to get my hands on the barbell again. I missed that little guy. I bought elbow sleeves from Tallinn and hoped that might ease the pain I sometimes (read: most often) get in my elbows when having heavy barbell overhead. At least this first time those were perfect! Don't remember when I had a 85kg bar overhead without pain.
Complex.
2 power clean
2 front squat
2 jerk
Start at 40kg, add 5kg after each set, go till failure, then start over
This is something I've named Chris Spealler workout. Once saw this wod being done by him and fell in love with it. It was originally so that you start with 50% of your one rep max clean and jerk, then add 5kg per minute and go all the way up to failure. Then start again from the 50% load. I have done this earlier and started at 40kg so I figured doing the same thing this time too.
It was cool to jerk heavier weights than I have done in a very long time, and without no pain which made it even more phenomenal!
Friday. Emom x 10min: snatch (up to 60kg). Every 90sec: front squat triple (up to 120kg). Metcon, 60 pistols, 60 db snatch (22.5kg), 1.000m row. Time, 11.38. Intervals, every 3:00 x 8 sets: 10m front rack lunges (50kg), 8 bar-facing burpees.
This Friday I spent a good 2+ hours at the gym and didn't have to rush anywhere. It was great after the busy days we've had a lot lately. Olympic lifting, strength and couple of conditioning pieces.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
2x50kg
2x50kg
2x50kg
2x50kg
2x50kg
2x55kg
1x55kg
1x55kg
1x60kg
1x60kg
Body felt a bit stiff in the hips and shoulders but still these lifts were still okay, after couple of lifts. Had one miss in the 60kg's but corrected that one on the next attempt.
Strength.
Every 90 seconds, perform front squat triples (60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120kg)
It's been ages since front squatting. I've been having that barbell on my back in the past weeks more often but today I simply wanted to have the fronts now. These felt heavy, even though I climbed up just to 120 kilos.
Metcon. Time, 11.38
60 pistol squats
60 dumbbell snatches @ 22.5kg (alternating hands every 5 reps)
1.000m row
This was fun! Maybe that is not the right word to describe the feelings but it was one heck of a time to do such a good bunch of reps of one movement without throwing anything else in between. I did the pistols in sets of 10 reps. Towards the end my hammies and quads were shot and felt almost numb.
Db snatches needed to be 5 reps with right hand, then 5 snatches with left hand. You can see the entire wod except the rowing in the video below
Intervals.
Every 3:00, for 8 sets:
10m front rack lunges @ 50kg
8 bar-facing burpees
This far there had been a good amount of work so I needed to recover for a while and get my protein shakes inside this body. After some time it felt pretty good to hit it again and the green matt was free so I decided to go for one more piece in the workout session with interval work. Lunges and burpees. Not sure but I'd guess it took something like 45 seconds per set?
Thursday. Back squat, singles up to 140kg. Chipper, 30 hang power clean (60kg), 30 box, 30 front squat (60kg), 30 pull-ups, 30 jerk (60kg), 30 burpees. Intervals, 30sec on, 30sec off, for 10min: row.
Nice! It was great to get back to the gym. Had to take two days off of training. One day would have been okay but there have been so much things to be taken care of lately that I simply don't have time to hit the gym. I leave home early in the morning and come back late in the evening and go to bed. This has also taken some of my energy, and it showed today.
Strength.
Back squat
5x60, 90kg
3x110kg
1x120, 130, 140kg
There was no chance in going heavy today. It felt tough from the very beginning. Body wasn't very receptive to big loads on my back. But these weights were okay anyway. I'll take these for now.
Chipper.
30 hang power cleans @ 60kg
30 box jumps
30 front squats @ 60kg
30 pull-ups
30 push jerks @ 60kg
30 burpees
This was a great workout, c'mon! Alternating between barbell and bodyweight for six different elements in a chipper style for time. I went 10-7-7-6 on the hang cleans and was able to maintain a solid breathing. Box jumps unbroken, then squats were 12-10-8. My front squats with light weights are at okay level. I can maintain a good form on those, they just burn legs a lot.
Pull-ups were 10 reps at first, then 5's to the end. At this point I started to feel like a car had driven over me. Jerks were not cool at all. At this stage of the workout those felt heavy. I went 8-6-6-5-5 on those but had to take longer breaks than I hoped for. There were elements of mental breakdown =) Once those were done the burpees felt like an eternity. Rarely have those felt so miserable but somehow I crawled to the finish line. Damned it was heavy. For sure my preparation was not on point leading up to this day but this probably would have been bad wod in any case.
Intervals.
30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, for 10 minutes:
Row
After recovering for a while and trying to get myself back in the game I did a short interval work. Rowing pace was at 1:40 on average. Something between 1:38 and 1:41. Felt bad on my legs.
Monday. Macho Man @ 65kg. Metcon, 4rds of: 30 wb, 500m row. Time, 15.08.
Time for another benchmark workout, two days in a row. This is not one of the headquarter's benchmarks but Ben Bergeron's (a.k.a. competitorstraining). He's the Man in the biz, coach for a bunch of Crossfit Games athletes.
I've done this bad boy 3 times in the past years and it's eaten me alive every time. It's been completed at 60kg every time. Today I decided to roll the dice with 65kg. For maybe 3 minutes I thought this is gonna be okay. After completing 5 minutes it was a tough to digest I was only at mid way.
After 7 minutes it was a battle. My quads burned a lot but they held on for the entire 10 minutes. Got to say I was relieved when 10 minutes had passed. It was a good decision to go 65 kilos. Maybe some day 70kg could be the thing. It's not that any of the movements would be too tough but it's the entity. There is 9 reps per minute and the recovery part starts to feel rather short as time passes.
Macho Man @ 65kg
Metcon. Time, 15.08
4 rounds of:
30 unbroken wall ball shots
500m row
Needed to take some recovery after Macho Man. There was some walk between the stations so I lost quite a bit of time each round in the transitions. Anyway, 30 wall balls were written to be unbroken. Shoulders got on fire somewhere in the third round probably. Luckily I managed to go ub every round. Rowing was moderate pace, somewhere around 1:50. Didn't rest between the two though, just hopped on the Concept2 and grabbed the wall ball right away.
