Long session at the gym. Good warm-up, no rush. Got my hips and shoulders ready for some action. It was overhead work pretty much today, assistance stuff for snatch. Metcon consisted of ohs and pull-ups, which are poison to me as a combination. Finished the session with some light work.
This was basically overhead squat triples but I started almost every set with a snatch balance. Only the last set was a pure ohs triple without the snatch balance. Just pushed the barbell to straight arms before squatting. In Denmark I didn't finish the 75kg triple and it got me thinking there's a possibility I have never got a3 reps at this weight. Don't know, it is possible but I just don't remember it. That was enough for the day on this movement for me. Felt pretty good on the overhead squats this time!
Recap
Pulls.
Snatch pulls 3x5 (90, 100, 100kg)
This is something I've found very useful. It teaches me lots of patience for snatch. And the bar path looks to be much better, way more correct than before. That makes me smile big time. Plus it's great to get some pulls done as deadlift has been out of question for about 3 weeks now. I told you some time ago there is some weird pain in my left ribcage when pulling heavy loads from the floor or alternatively when sneezing / coughing.
Everything else is okay, no pain at all. But on these occasions there is an internal pressure which I do not like. These 100kg pulls are so light that it doesn't matter. But for snatch grip pulls it is quite a load. I'll have these in my repertoire in the near future just to teach my body. Weight was good.
Metcon. Time, 12.22
5 rounds of:
10 overhead squat, 40kg
15 pull-ups
30 double unders
Huh, it was known already beforehand that ohs and pull-ups are a difficult combo for me. That means to say it is useful to practice that. Ohs was unbroken each round, pull-ups were so for 2 rounds. The following were 8-4-3 for each of the remaining 3 rounds. Double's had trips in 2/5 sets. Three sets were good. This one made me breath hard for sure, and muscles got tired during the course of the workout.
Finisher.
3 rounds of:
500m easy row
20 ghd sit-ups
After writing down what work I had been doing I sat on the rower to get my thoughts together, and did a little cash out in the end. Rowed with easy pace for 1.5km, it was somewhere between 1.50-1.55 per 500 meters. Ghd's were there just to get some core work done in the process.
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.
Wednesday. Ohs singles (up to 85kg). Front squat singles (up to 130kg). Back squat singles (up to 140kg). Sled push 8x20m (up to 150kg). Accessory, 3rds of: 10 reverse hypers, 10 glute ham raises.
Originally this day was booked for back squats but yesterday I promised myself to give it a rest. My legs felt smashed yesterday after those squat cleans. However, last night squatting came back in to my mind and the plan came back alive. Decided to see how I feel like after waking up. Well, it turned out I did all possible forms of squats.
Back squat singles (110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140kg)
This wasn't like attacking new PR's but building up to a heavy single. Only on front squat I looked for a new record. I know it's close! Overhead squats went up to 85kg. I also looked for 90kg but couldn't quite hold it. Last 2 reps didn't go as low as the earlier squats. That is something worth putting focus that no matter the weight, the lifts look similar. Like they do in front and back squat.
Front squats felt great in every single rep. That last successful repetition at 130kg was smooth and not even that heavy. I had already put 135kg ready for next lift but then it came to my mind that it's actually my current PR so why not jump right into new one. Because the previous was okay I decided to skip 135kg and do 137.5kg instead. Maybe a mental breakdown =) I know anyway that I'm close to 140kg on this one. Got to do more squats and probably some accessories to strengthen my legs.
Back squats were the easiest of these. Well, can you say the easiest but anyway they felt good. I wanted to have a spotter on the last rep just in case but it was not such a big deal. It was a good spotter to psyche me up.
Squat recap
Sled.
8x20m sled push
As I just wrote I wanna strengthen my legs and lower body. Sled is a perfect tool for this objective. This is heavy shit. This grass matt is 20 meters but at times it can feel like a long distance. Pushing a sled is largely mental stuff. It's gonna hit lower body with a vengeance and once you hit a set the legs are going numb pretty soon. But it also feels so damned good. Today I got 8 sets of 20 meter trips done, and built it up so that most of the loads were at 150kg (plus the sled).
Accessory.
3 rounds of:
10 reverse hyper
10 glute ham raise
This was the first time doing these movements with the real machines. I've had some modifications earlier but they can not compare to this real stuff. These pretty much murdered my hamstrings. It didn't require much after all this squatting and sled pushing. I'm gonna have these included in my game plan on a steady basis because it's obviously gonna strengthen my lower body. Awesome elements!
Monday. Back squats 3-3-3 (max 130kg). Clean & jerk EMOM workout. Assistance metcon of kb ohs, push-ups and glute ham raises.
God damned that yesterday's kettlebell work feels in my body. In my entire body! A good solid and quick workout, 12 minutes of work and I can really feel it in my hamstrings, glutes, lower and upper back, a.k.a the entire posterior chain. I stubbornly wanted to squat as that was my original plan. Continued by clean & jerks and some assistance work in the end.
Strength. Back squats 3-3-3 (100, 120, 130kg). Today the weights were a bit different than normally. Usually after 100kg the next step is 110 and maybe even 115 before hitting 120kg. Today my strategy was different. Jump right into 120kg and then 130kg. I managed to get those up and it felt way better than before. Got to remember this when squatting for the next time. Note to self: don't wear yourself down with too many sets before the "targeted" weights.
Metcon. Clean & jerks, 60kg. Total of 40 reps.
Every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 8 minutes
5 clean & jerks, 60kg
Trying to improve on a few things. To mention a couple: high-rep c&j, grip strength, mental game, breathing, metabolic conditioning and technique after quite a number of reps. My jerks were more like push presses today. However, that was intentional, this time. I wanted to give more stress on my shoulders and make it harder for them.
Metcon. For completion
5/5 kettlebell overhead squats, 16kg
15 push-ups
10 glute ham raises (modified)
Some assistance work. There was a point for all these movements. Overhead squats to get familiar with the movement and increase mobility as well as confidence carrying weights overhead. Push-ups are my goat, have to improve on them. Glute ham raises to strengthen my hamstrings as a new movement to shock my legs. This was not a timed workout, only for completion.
Those glutes were tough. I used that Bosu ball as alternative (check the video below from about 02:40 to understand the movement). I can already feel my hamstrings taking the hit from squats and this new movement.
Check out some alternatives for glute ham raises if you're missing the equipment like I do
How about Blair Morrison's workout, looks awesome, hopefully I can try it some day. Read the blog post from here.
