Monday. Clean and jerk 6x3 @ 70, 75, 80kg. Skills, handstand. Wod, 4rds of: 2 rope climbs, 25 du.
Olraight, another training day with Toni @ CF Kehä. We met in the morning. Even though we had a bit different approach to the session I believe we both got what we wanted. Toni worked on his handstand practice and then did a 30min emom alternating between rowing 15 cals and 30 double unders, together with Antti. I wanted to play with the barbell but jumped in on the handstand walks.
Oly.
Clean and jerk 6x3 @ 70, 70, 75, 75, 80, 80kg
These were supposed to be touch'n'go triples all the way. I'm okay with finishing each set overhead but it wasn't cool that I needed to pause on the front rack on the last reps of the 80kg sets. I was looking to bounce it right off my chest and over my head. Sets between 70-75 kilos moved up nicely.
Skills.
Handstand
It's been an eternity since practicing handstand walks. Considering that they went pretty nicely. The biggest weakness there is to learn how to breath properly when being inverted. On the other hand I'm happy I can save the form even when it feels like it's about to fall down.
Workout.
4 rounds of:
2 rope climbs
25 double unders
The last two times I have climbed a rope my left shin has been bruised, bled and been torn and worn. The first of those times kept it out of order for a month. Needed to get some medicine to get that inflammation away from there. So I purchased a shin protector from Rogue which was a lifesaver in action. I'm telling you I will never ever climb a rope without that anymore.
I started this workout as emom wod. Odd minutes were 2 rope climbs and even minutes were 25 double unders. After 2 rounds my shoulders felt like they needed a little more rest so I stopped watching the timer and just worked by feeling. First climb was okay all the time but that second one required some focus and strength. Double unders went nicely today.
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.
About time to pull from the ground! This time my hands were not ripped at all, and I was anxious of getting my hands on the barbell. Before that there stood handstand on my notes, and the session ended up with a a good conditioning piece of bodyweight action.
Skills.
Handstand
It was a positive surprise to see I had written down handstand practice in my program for today. This skill was neglected for a good time when I was training at my old gym because there was no space for that basically. It was mostly something I worked on during springs and summers. When I changed to this OPC gym this spring I thought there would be more and more of this type of training. Still, it hasn't been there that much. So it's surprising that this thing is going further little by little =)
Strength.
Deadlift 5x5 @ 160kg
It's been some time since pulling from the ground. Reason for this is that on those days that I've planned to do deadlifts there's been some rips in my hands. So it was a lot of positive enthusiasm towards this portion. Kept the bar light because going heavy after some break in the deadlift really feels in my back for days, and kind of prevents 100% training in the upcoming days. Form stayed good and everything felt great.
5x5 @ 160kg
Metcon. Time, 10.48
5 rounds of:
7 handstand push-ups
14 pull-ups
21 box jumps
Nice one! Hspu's were unbroken, and easiest part of the workout. I'd love to have more of them in this wod. Number of pull-ups was double the amount of hspu's. Went unbroken for the first 2 rounds. Then the next 2 rounds were 9-5. Last round was unbroken again. Might have been able to go ub all the way but this was my decision this time, and I hope this was the quicker version overall. Box jumps unbroken. Good breather!
Thursday. Skills day: Ring mu's, Bar mu's, Handstand walk.
This was intentionally a lighter day, and I concentrated purely on developing my skill base. Good bunch of muscle-ups and then handstand walk to crown the session. It was awesome to witness my lovely wife hit some bad ass crossfit metcon.
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
Bar muscle-up
Handstand walk
I took couple of sets of ring mu triples. These felt alright. Had one miss but other than that everything was good. My focus was to keep tension in the body throughout the motion. Both up and down. At the moment I'm happy on the form. In the evening I watched one of Carl Paoli's video clips where he teaches how to do muscle-ups with ease and I got to say it looks a bit lighter than my versions =) Well, that was no surprise but still I'm happy with these.
It was basically 15 reps on both elements. That was the most I dared to do. Don't know what's up with my palms but with a big volume they tend to tear up. So this was the max I wanted to do. There was more energy that could have been used for more muscle-ups but this was a sensible call. Bar mu's were much easier as they always are.
My gym has the best possible platform for training handstand and handstand walk. The grass matt is 20 meters long so that's plenty for me, and there's almost always enough space to practice this specific skill. I took couple of reps / attempts here, and occasionally was able to walk pretty decent distances. 10 meter was the longest streak.
Saturday. Skills, Bar muscle-ups, Ring muscle-ups, handstand.
Today was nothing scheduled on my program so it was more like a play day. Worked on some skills and just had fun fooling around. Pauliina was doing push presses so it was awesome to be there to support her.
Haven't done my homework on the muscle-ups lately. It feels like an eternity since I've done those previously. I had planned on doing only ring mu's but the rings were taken in the beginning so I jumped on the pull-up bar and started ripping it. Took only one set for 10 reps. That was a bit tight in the end but surely some more reps might be in the tank. At home I realized that happens to be my PR number. I've taken it once last fall.
Recap
Ring mu's were doubles every minute for 5 minutes. Felt good on those too. Handstand (walk) is something I could put more effort now as the surroundings are perfect. That grass matt is awesome for training being inverted because it's so flat.
Thursday. AM: Metcon, 3rds of: 400m run, 30 wb, 12 pull-ups. Time, 13.29. Skills, handstand. PM: CF Open 11.2. Result, 357 reps. Emom x 10min: 8 reverse lunges (50kg).
In the morning I drove to a place where I have been about two years ago with my bro. Kauniainen sports track. They have a pull-up bar right next to the track so I went there with some action in my mind. Took also some handstand training. In the afternoon it was time for another session. Found a new Open workout which needed to be tested. Good one.
Metcon. Time, 13.29
3 rounds of:
400m run
30 wall ball, 9kg
12 pull-ups
As I just wrote yesterday, running is not in my wheelhouse, don't like the element that much but it's always worth it. During my floorball years I ran a lot, and had good endurance on that one. Never the fastest but a good conditioning on running. Currently it's not as good for sure. Only because I haven't ran that much. It took my breath away today.
Doing wall balls after running for one lap was not the easiest of jobs. Wb's are my thing but they were tough throughout the workout. Didn't warm-up properly so the first round was as tough as the rest. I went 20-10 each round.
Pull-ups were unbroken. It was the easiest element of this one. Mainly due to the number of reps. My fingers were sore from all the work being done this week and it didn't feel good to even touch the pull-up bar. But once I went up there, it was no biggie after all. Good rather short workout after all.
Wall ball station was that white wall on the left
Skills.
Handstand
After getting my breath back I practiced on my handstand skills. The field was as flat as it can be which made it a perfect platform from being inverted. It turned out to be quite a good session on handstand. This was definitely some sort of PR in handstand walk. I got a 10m distance performed on walking on my hands. It felt like 100 meters though. Felt great!
When we were in Italy Toni sent me a message that he'd done this one so it stuck in the back of my head. It looked like a good workout, and I had never seen this one before. Today felt like a perfect timing to hit this one. Took some heavier deadlifts beforehand just to get used to pulling from ground. 70kg barbell turned out to be very light.
The only thing I had in mind was Toni's result when I entered this one. Somehow I knew it's gonna hurt. It's light work so it's basically about engine. No reason to break the sets. For a second I thought push-ups might become an issue but luckily I got them unbroken too. For sure they got heavier but I was determined to finish them with glory.
Box jumps were probably the most challenging element. My hip flexors have been pretty much on fire the entire week because of the training volume so it was no surprise. My plan was to walk slowly from the push-up station to the box, shake my legs during the way, and once I arrived at the box, started jumping right away. I was able to keep a very steady pace throughout those 15 minutes. Didn't gas out at ay moment, peaceful pace from the beginning to the end. It was definitely a perfect metcon in a sense that heart rate and heart beat was high towards the end.
Accessory.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
8 reverse lunges, 50kg
Stole also this one from my man Toni. A little fun accessory action at the end of the session. Mostly this got to hip flexors. Weight wasn't super heavy. The movement itself was a bit awkward in the beginning. Haven't done much reverse lunges but after 2 sets I felt comfortable with these. Got a good sweat on this one too.
Saturday. AM: emom x 10min: 2 squat @ 110kg. PM: Handstand. Wall balls for fun: 200 reps.
The sky opener pretty clear for this Saturday and we took off to the woods early in the morning for a 30min run / walk (half and half). We were going to the city before heading to the countryside but I somehow managed to find a 30min time slot to sneak to the gym for a quick squat session. I wanted to get my hands on a barbell because I knew that's not an option anymore in Klaukkala.
Strength.
Emom x 10min:
2 back squat, 110kg
Yesterday I got some lighter high rep sets done with 100kg. Today's session was very quick. Just half an hour time and I don't wanna skip the warm-up so it was hasty. Heavier sets were in my sight but didn't have enough time to build up to serious weights. This was a lot of fun though! I have a video of this action but you'll get to see it only tomorrow.
Afternoon.
Handstand
200 wall ball shots, 9kg
We had some things to do at the house but there was plenty of time to mess around. Took some handstand practice and then threw the wall ball for 200 reps, not for time. Unbroken sets of 5x20, and then 4x25. These felt good all the way. Had no issues with the shots. Nice movement.
Monday. Back squat 8x2 (max 135kg). Every 2:30 sled pull / sled push, for 30min, 20m @ 160kg. Metcon, 5rds of: 10 dips, 15 ghd.
Spent 2:30 hours at the gym which was great as it was a bummer I didn't have time to squat yesterday. That knocked at the back of my head for the day so it was good to get that out of the system right away on Monday afternoon. Quite a few doubles, then finished my lower body by pushing and pulling a heavy sled for half an hour. Took some action with thrusters and bar mu's, then a metcon, and finished the session with handstand + mobility.
This was eights doubles with rather short recovery between sets. I got a tip couple of sessions ago from one of the coaches. He emphasized the importance of having elbows right under the barbell. Don't let them fall back but keep them along the same vertical line with the barbell. Check. Feels more solid, it's a tight pack when elbows are pointing down instead of back.
Focus today was on elbows, deep squats, tight core, and squeezing butt cheeks. I feel like I accomplished the goals well. There's nothing I felt like was missing big time today. Pretty solid squats. Happy man. The heaviest sets really were heavy, 135kg is no joke for me. Okay I've lifted 150kg for a single once in my life but the entity must be in good shape to lift 140+ kilos. I'd say I can take 140kg any day as a heavy lift but heavier lifts than that are very demanding.
Squats
Sled.
Every 2:30 minutes, for 30 minutes
First 15 minutes: 20m sled pull @ 160kg
Last 15 minutes: 20m sled push @ 160kg
This was brutal stuff. Every two and a half minutes I pulled the sled for 15 minutes, then a short break as I let some other dude warm-up with the sled. Then another 15 min session by pushing the sled. I had 160kg on the sled for the entire time. That excludes the weight of the sled, no idea how much that weighs.
This was the first time I pulled a sled like this. The point was that I walked backwards, holding a rope that went around the handles of the sled, leaned back, kept my eyes straight (which means they were pointed to the ceiling), lats tightly together like in a deadlift / pull-up or pretty much any pulling movement. Then just slowly walked backwards for 20 meters. This started to become really heavy and the time domain was just perfect. Had to shake my legs after each set.
I was done after the 6x20m pulls but decided to continue to a similar set of pushes. Another 15 minutes of pain and agony. But it worked perfectly. My legs were about to go numb so I'm looking for those gains in the long run!
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
10 dips
15 ghd sit-ups
Took me some time to get my head back in the game after sled work. Didn't have a timer running but that didn't change the name of the game. This was a metcon. The movements won't put my breathing to a real test though. Dips were the tougher one even though there were only 10 reps per round. Rings were occupied by someone for ring rows so I did stationary dips instead. Went unbroken each round. Last 2 rounds were a good battle.
Ghd's are in my wheelhouse. Core is strong enough to allow me to move constantly on this movement. Maybe I should program a high rep ghd in some workout in a chipper style like they had in the Regionals. I had probably 40 reps per round some time ago with this one and those felt good too.
Accessory.
Thrusters
Bar muscle-ups
Handstand hold against the wall
Some action to accompany the actual training session. Thrusters didn't feel too good on my shoulders, and bar muscle-ups ripped one torn piece of my hand open again so the bloody palm was too much to handle. Some handstand training nose facing the wall in the end.
Saturday. AM: Push press 5-5-5-3-3-3 (max 80kg). Every 5:00, for 35min, perform 20 cal row, 30 du, 10 pull-ups, 20m sled push (110kg). Accessory, sled pull standing (50kg). Skills, handstand practice. PM: Shoveling for couple of hours. Skills, rope climbs.
Saturday was a busy day! In the morning I drove Pauliina and her friends around the city because there was another bachelorette's party taking place. Once I came back I ate second breakfast and went to the gym to workout for about 2 hours. Then it was time to get away from home because the entourage was about land at our house. So I packed my stuff and went overnight to the in-laws' place. There was a lot of shoveling waiting for me and Kari. The rainwater drainage had to be planted properly so it took couple of hours. Lots of eating took place of course and finally Champions League Final came on TV late in the evening so it was obviously gonna be a soccer night.
Strength.
Push press 5-5-5-3-3-3 (70, 72, 75, 78, 79, 80kg)
Couple of sets push press. These turned out to be heavy. Not the biggest loads in the history of mankind but for me they were heavy. Especially the 5x75, and those triples pretty much all the way. I was still happy on making them happen. I've had some nagging pain in my elbows lately so being able to do these was great.
Saturday recap
Workout.
Every 5:00, for 35 minutes, perform the following:
20 cal row
30 double under
10 pull-up
20 meter sled push, 110kg (+ sled)
Got this from my bro. It was initially 20 cal on an assault bike but I've never even seen one live so that was not gonna happen =) Subbed it to rowing and went for 20 calories anyway. Used damper setting at 8 in the beginning and raised it to 9 at some point. Had some misses on the double unders but in general those were better than last time I jumped around.
Pull-ups for 10 reps is not bad, right. When doing this in a sprint style interval work, they got surprisingly tough. Went unbroken in all sets though. That was not the issue but they started to fatigue my body too.
Sled was a newcomer in a metcon. The times I have used sled, it's been some sort of strength or accessory work at the end of a workout. But mixing it in to a metcon was a cool element! That really ate my legs in pretty much each round, except for the maybe first 2 ones. These rounds took me about 2:30 to finish so it was about 1:1 work:recovery ratio. Tough wod, and got tougher each round.
Sled.
Sled pulls, standing
This was something new cool stuff I saw someone do just one day earlier. It was the first time doing this. The goal was to increase pulling power and hoping to transfer that finally to cleans, snatches, pull-ups, muscle-ups etc. You'll see from the video how it worked out. Right side seemed a lot stronger than the left one, that's for sure.
Skills.
Handstand
Took some handstand practice, and on my first attempts there was one guy giving some coaching tips to me. We started talking and it turned out back in the days he had been on the national gymnastics team in Finland so he it's quite obvious he had phenomenal body control skills. He taught me on handstand so I hope patience and good practice will take me further on this skill.
Outdoors.
Shoveling for hours
Rope climbs
In the afternoon we worked our asses off in Klaukkala. This was a fun outdoor workout, let's call it real life crossfit. Shovel was swinging a lot with Kari, and we finally achieved what we were aiming for. Finished the work on Sunday morning. In the evening I had time to attack the rope climbs shortly before locking my eyes on the Juventus - FC Barcelona match on TV.
Here is one rope climb. I've tried different styles of foot locks on the rope but they seem more challenging than this one I'm using currently.
Tuesday. Strength, back squat 7x3 (max 135kg). Metcon, 15-10-5 power clean (70kg), 30-20-10 ring dips. Time, 7.53. Handstand. Mobility.
On Tuesday I had plenty of time to get some fitness worked up. Yesterday's front squats changed to back squats. Built up to heavy sets of squatting, and felt proud of that. Metcon was one of my brother's creations, very good version of Elizabeth. In the end I took couple of sets handstand training, and mobility work plus flushed legs by rowing for a while.
Strength.
Back squat triples (110, 120, 125, 130, 133, 135kg, and two reps @ 137kg)
This was a lot of fun! Squatting feels good at the moment. It gets heavy at around 130kg but it comes up pretty solidly. Depending on the day, sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier. Today my max set for a triple was 135 kilos. Last set was at 137kg. It turned out to be a double as the second rep was heavy as a ton of iron was on my back. There was not going to be a triple this time. I was still very happy on completing these squats.
Squat recap
Metcon. Time, 7.53
15-10-5 clean, 70kg
30-20-10 ring dips
Benchmark workout Elizabeth is 21-15-9 of the same movements with the only difference being the weight. It's 60kg. Rep scheme was naturally different as there were 30 semi-heavy cleans and 60 ring dips. Cleans were much more pleasant compared to ring dips. Dips are not in my wheelhouse so it was a good choice to do them in a workout like this. Those are high rep sets to me.
Cleans were no issue, did them in power cleans. It was something like 5-5-3-2 in the beginning, then on the second round it was something like 4's, 3's, and 2's. Similar probably on the last round, last 3 reps were singles. But the thing was that when I dropped the barbell, I didn't go and walk around but took couple of breaths and picked the bar up again.
It was the dips that burned me. Or more like my triceps. I always do them strict. Don't even know how to use momentum on these. I did these mostly in sets of 5 reps in the first round. Second round was 4's and 3's, and last one was just trying to do them as quickly as possible in small sets. Good wod for sure!
Cool down.
Row 1.000m
Handstand
Mobility
After getting my breath back again I sat on the rower and kept a slow pace, at around 2:00 for one kilometer, main focus was to just get some fluids running in my body. Slow heart rate movement. Then couple of sets handstand and finally mobility. I've found it smart to sit in overhead squat's bottom position with a stick or empty barbell overhead. Sitting in the hole for 20-30 seconds at a time must improve mobility in hips, back and shoulders.
The weather is freaking summery in here! And I love it. We were gonna go to the gym in the morning but instead it turned out to be a one and a half hour walk in the parks, forest and almost downtown Helsinki. Awesome quality time with my baby. On our way back we took a shortcut through Eltsu and "accidentally" stopped there to do some bodyweight training. There were a lot of people so we got inspired to do cartwheels and handstand. In the evening I went to the Box and worked on my pull-ups in various ways. It's a bummer I have to be cautious of my hip flexors. It would be great to lift heavy and do proper metcons already!
Playing around.
Cartwheels
Handstand
For some reason I have thought for the last couple of months that it would be awesome to master a simple movement like cartwheel. But those have always looked pathetic and there hasn't been a gymnastics coach training with me so it's not something I would start practicing on my own. Now that I had Pauliina with me in a place like this it felt right to take couple of attempts. We actually played here quite a long time as we both felt like we progressed a bit. This is something gals seem to be better at, I guess they just know how to control their body better =)
After playing around with cartwheels I also took some handstand hold for fun. There were a lot of people in Eltsu improving their fitness. And mother's day was seen in the picture too. Lots of families were walking outdoors in a beautiful and sunny Finland.
Pull-ups.
Weighted pull-ups
3x10, 10, 150, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 20kg
5x17.5, 15kg
6x10kg
I got a chance to have a training session with Jasper, at least for a while. Our schedules didn't quite match but it was great to have couple of fist pumps and hit a workout. He had to go and I stayed to work on my pull-ups in different styles. Starting with pull-ups with some extra weight. Mostly triples, built up to a heavy set which turned out to be 22.5kg. Then I dropped down with more reps. Pull-ups are great but to be honest doing weighted versions of them for strength is kind of boring. Feels like a meathead.
Pull-up complex.
Every minute on the minute for 9 minutes
1-3min: 4 bar muscle-ups
4-6min: 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
7-9min: 10 pull-ups
This was much more fun! And I got a little heartbeat up at the same time. I could do muscle-ups all day every day! I'm so very happy those are rocking pretty well nowadays. Both bar and ring mu's. Mu's are also something I can do without having to stress how hip flexors are doing. Of course hip work is in the play but this movement is not the one putting too much pressure in there.
First 3 minutes were all about muscle-ups, next 3 minutes were c2b pull-ups and last 3 minutes were normal pull-ups. I increased the number of reps after each movement because it got easier towards the end. My lats were on fire on the regular pull-ups. I mean they hurt like hell. I had to go foam roll my lats and stretch them out for quite a bit after the workout. This made good to my body!
Bench.
Bench press 3x10 (60, 70, 75kg)
This is rare. What I really wanted to do was a bad ass metcon but I just couldn't figure out what I would do without using my legs that much so instead, it turned out to be a bench session in the end. Three sets of 10 reps, climbing. Last set was 75kg.
Bench sets
Then I took couple of heavier singles but my upper body was smashed at this point already. Hopefully tomorrow morning I wake up with fully healed legs so I can start doing some real work!
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.
Today I wanted to test out couple of muscle-ups just to see if the previous mu training session was a fluke or success. Then lots of different type of cleans, either as complex or as emom workout. Then I took some tng clean and jerks combined with c2b's, and finally handstand training. Cleans got heavy but other than that the day was a lighter one.
Skills.
Muscle-ups (PR 5 reps)
My confidence was high when walking to the gym. Short warm-up but I was so hesitant that I needed to get my hands pretty quickly on those rings. Just a double to get used to this movement, then it was time to put my phone on Pauliina's hand and I told asked her to take a short clip because I'm gonna hit a PR right now.
For me this was no surprise. It was the end result of working towards this goal. This thing took another step further when I bought Rogue rings. Since then, I've had the possibility to practice muscle-ups. Okay, we had the same rings at the old gym but there was an issue. The roof was too low in that place which means that my form was not able to be as it should be. When bringing the rings outdoors to a tree branch I was able to hang the rings high enough which means I had to jump on to the rings.
This new place is gonna seal the deal. I'm gonna keep having muscle-ups in my training sessions frequently. Plus, here it's also possible to do bar muscle-ups which is 100% going to have a positive side effect on ring mu's too. On this particular record breaking set the ring straps got stuck around my left foot, and I had to stop the momentum for a while to get the strap loose. After the 4th rep the "natural grip" got ripped off my hands which made the last rep a little challenging. I'll take this for now!
Last 2 days my legs have been sore as hell. Don't know if it was the sled work or those 100 thrusters on Tuesday. The reality anyway was that I needed to get some heavier cleans and squats in my system for sure after yesterday's rest day.
This was a fun little complex. Emom workouts are the best. I really like that timer putting some pressure on recovery. Had no issues with these cleans this time. My hands were a bit wider this time too even though it was only cleans, not jerk. This might be a good call because I was able to bring the barbell higher before bouncing it up from the hips. Felt good.
After having done this for 10 minutes this part of the workout was over. After looking at couple of the reps on video I wanted to get more reps done. Decided to make 5 quick sets of the same sequence, clean + squat combo @ 100kg. Enjoyed every single rep of these.
Complex
Cleans.
3 rounds of:
1 minute of squat clean singles @ 90kg
2 minute break
Result, 6 reps per minute
More cleans baby. I've done more power cleans lately so I took a good doze of squat cleans today. No doubt my legs were tired after this. And this also got my breathing heavy as well. Last reps of each set got challenging for sure. There might have been time for 7th rep in some sets but I was definitely done after 6 reps. I noticed the further the set / minute went, the lower the bar came to my hips which is not a good thing. It was a fatigued man's way to get that barbell on my front rack.
Extra work.
Clean and jerks (40-60kg)
Chest-to-bar pull-ups
There was a metcon in my mind but there was no way I was gonna hit it after this one. Toni just did a 3 round workout of 400m running, 10 c&j @ 60kg and 10 c2b's which would obviously be some sort of sprint. A moderate length wod at max.
Instead I just did clean and jerk sets to work on efficient mechanics. Good break between c&j's and pull-ups. C2b's were sets of 10's. Nothing super heavy.
Skills.
Handstand
In the end I took couple of sets handstand. It went quite decently. I think I'll have to take some clips in order to witness that myself. There has been nice development that I have been able to hold my stance still for longer times than before. I mean without moving my hands at all. Just balancing the entire body by holding the core tight and pressing my fingers strongly or gently towards the ground depending which way my body is leaning.
Tuesday. AM @ Eltsu: Strength, press / jerk (max 90kg). Strength, front squat emom (up to 135kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 250m run, 10 oh lunges (40kg), 50 du. Time, 13.20.
PM @ OP Center: Power clean emom x 11 (PR 103kg). Metcon, 12min amrap of: 4 bar mu, 8 hspu, 12 pistol. Result, 127 reps. Cashout, 60 GHD sit-ups. Skills, handstand.
What a day! In the morning we went to our wedding place to arrange some things concerning the big day. Afterwards I dropped my lady to work and my responsibility was to go to work in a bit different style. Today it was Eltsu cave where I got my daily doze of crossfit in. After food and nap it was time to hit it again, this time in a totally new place, Optimal Training Center.
Starting the day by putting weight overhead. I was looking forward to this part for sure. Actually the entire day got me chills as I was thinking about it. I was like a little boy in a candy shop. My left shoulder has bothered me for some time in the heavier weights. In lighter ones no problem. I was optimistic today but it made a comeback after I put 70kg on the barbell.
This was a bummer my mood dropped for a second. No stretching would help and I couldn't figure out what to do. Then somehow it occurred to my mind that I could take a wider grip on the barbell. That's because there are no issues when I do snatch grip presses or jerks. Let's give it a shot. And it helped immediately! Couldn't be happier about this. I was a little careful on the jerks but it sure felt great to put weight overhead!
After finishing the complex sets I decided to work on my jerk. Let's do it with a pause on the dip phase. Get your breath, dip down, halt there for a moment, then extend the hips and jerk it to the sky. These were amazing. Why have I not done these before. I believe these will bring awareness to the movement very well.
Recap of overhead strength
Squats.
Front squat, 3 x 60, 90, 100kg
Every minute on the minute
1-3min: 3 x 100kg
4-6min: 2 x 110kg
7min: 1 x 120kg
8min: 1 x 125kg
9min: 1 x 130kg
10min: 1 x 135kg
11min: 1 x 140kg failed
This part was left a bit to imagination on the spot. Took some triples to get a feeling how my body reacts on these. Feeling was great. I did pause squats on those earlier sets. Then it hit me that this should definitely be an emom workout. With ascending weights and descending reps. Started off with triples, then doubles and finally singles. My camera's memory card went full at some point so I didn't get the entire stuff on video.
After 6 minutes it was supposed to be singles and 120kg was light so I added 5kg after each minute. Ended up hitting 135kg and I', telling you it wasn't that bad. Yes, I Had to push it but it was manageable. The easiest one I've had this far. It was probably the third time I've got it ever. After that one I put something like 160-170kg on the bar, took it on my front rack, stepped back, held it for couple of seconds and put it back on the rack. Actually I had troubles re-racking the bar for some reason so I had it for quite a while =)
The strategy for this one was to fake my body to first give a huge load, then drop it back to 140kg and nail it. I believe this was a good strategy as the bar felt comfortable after that monster load. Still, I couldn't finish this one. It's almost there though. I'm taking it one day.
Attempt at 140kg
Metcon. Time, 13.20
5 rounds of:
250m run
10 overhead walking lunges, 40kg
50 double unders
Running is a great element in metcons. Usually I have to utilize treadmill if I wanna have running as part of a metcon and that's just not the same. I'll take it as there are no options but I prefer real running any day. Another thing I wanted to have in this metcon is an element that I can't do in my normal gym. Overhead lunges. Okay it's possible to do them but you can't walk forward, you just have to go up and down within that one meter area. No cool. Here I can walk around with the bar as there is plenty of space. Double unders were part of this just to get some skills done and breathing go high.
This was exactly what I wanted as I was writing the metcon. Running was steady pace. Oh lunges unbroken. Got to shoulders and breathing. Double unders are okay but putting a lot of them in a workout in a row makes it a bit miserable. They burn my shoulders a lot. I've done 100 reps sometime unbroken so I got them but 50 reps in a workout will probably force me to break them down somehow. This time I did them in either 25-25 or 20-15-15 reps. I think there was one trip but other than that it was intentional.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute x 11 minutes
Power cleans
1-3min: 3 x 80kg
4-6min: 2 x 85kg
7-8min: 1 x 90kg
9min: 1 x 95kg
10min: 1 x 100kg
11min: 1 x 103kg (PR)
After eating, taking a nap and eating, I headed to this new place that was just opened about two weeks ago. Optimal Training Center, a freaking heaven. There were Rogue and Eleiko bars and plates, possibility to do muscle-ups, handstand walk, do farmer's walk, push sled, ring muscle-ups, ghd sit-ups, reverse hypers if you want to. The point is: once I come here, it's not gonna be just basic stuff but I want to utilize these circumstances.
Wanted to get my hands on this Rogue bar right away. Power cleans in the same way as front squats in the morning. I saw mr. Froning do this kind of workout and got inspired by it right away. These cleans felt super good, and it felt from the very beginning it's gonna be a great day of cleaning. Ended up getting a personal record. Getting bigger numbers for power clean must mean things are looking better for squat cleans too.I've improved about 10kg of my power clean lately. I'll take it.
Emom power cleans
Metcon. Result, 127 reps (5 rounds + 3 hspu)
12min amrap of:
4 bar muscle-ups
8 handstand push-ups
12 pistol squats
Looked easy on paper but damned it got me big time! Bar muscle-ups and handstand push-ups are a real combination. First time ever I've mixed these two elements. I was able to do mu's unbroken except for one set. I believe it was the 3rd or 4th round. Purely lack of concentration. On hspu's it was same thing. With the difference that it was not lack of concentration, it was lack of strength =) My shoulders were killing me. It was the last full set of hspu's that I had to break in to 5-3 reps.
Didn't warm up for pistol squats. Just took one rep with both leg before the workout to check it how it's done. I figured my legs were already waiting for some action. And they worked well. These were surprisingly comfortable. I liked how they wore me down in the course of the workout but still I was able to keep moving on them. My breaks took place between pistols and bar mu's. I wanted to get those mu's unbroken so I had to chill instead of jumping right back on the pull-up bar.
Cashout.
60 GHD sit-ups
Had to do these. I've never tried even one rep so this was a must. Took 4x15 reps with a pause between sets. Total of 60 reps. This was cool, and I guess these would definitely get to the core in a workout. This might be a deceiving movement. It wasn't that bad but let's wait for tomorrow. Then we'll see how it really goes.
Skills.
Handstand
Just wanted to play around and take advantage of the great area of grass to go inverted. Liked it a lot. That grass area is perfect for handstand walk as well as sled push and farmer's carry. There were some people doing their thing so the latter ones were out of question. Great day of training for sure. Loved every second of it!!!
Monday. Snatch by feeling. Ohs by feeling. Metcon, 6rds of: 6 hang power clean (70kg), 9 hspu, 12 high box jumps. Time, 13.00. Skills, handstand
Training day at Liikuntamylly in the morning. This place is divine! I'm on a holiday now so I'm definitely visiting these spectacular places I don't have access on weekdays. There are some restrictions in the evening times for public but during the daytime there's no problem. I worked on my snatch and ohs but the funniest part was absolutely the metcon and handstand.
Barbell.
Squat snatch
Overhead squat
There was no clear plan this time. There would have been but there's too much to work on in my snatch technique. Had it been for example clean, I know there won't be any misses and they are very consistent. I know I can hit high percentages of my max every single day. Snatch is totally different. That indicates snatch is highly technical movement, especially when done as squat snatch.
Got to keep on doing those reps to improve mobility and speed. The outcome will be strength. At least according to Coach Burgener. Mobility is the key, no doubt. On the lighter snatches it felt like a lot of things fell in to place and I was actually very happy on those. After 50kg it got more challenging and my technique collapsed somewhat. And I have no idea what those knees were doing on some of the reps =) After going by feeling in the beginning I took emom workout at 50-55kg snatch singles in the end.
Decided to continue with overhead squats after this. Just took 50, 60, 70, 80, 70kg reps. Basically they were singles, some were done with a pause in the bottom. Wouldn't probably hurt too much to do those pause squats more often. It really feels like mobility improves on every repetition. My armpits easily face down when I'm in the hole instead of facing forward like they should. There are some tightness in my shoulders I guess. When I'm standing, armpits are forward but when I'm down, they tend to switch more downwards.
Barbell work
Metcon. Time, 13.00
6 rounds of:
6 hang power clean, 70kg
9 handstand push-ups
12 high box jumps
This was a great workout! It is a very small thing but it sure feels great to drop the barbell after a tough set of cleans. It mentally feels good you don't have to bring it down nicely. Just drop it and move forward to handstand push-ups. I did everything in this workout unbroken. None of these elements were easy.
Cleans got tough in the middle of the workout but I fought to get them unbroken. I would have done couple of more rounds ub but they would have definitely been challenging. Breathing was heavy throughout the wod which made everything a little worse.
Handstand push-ups were easy in the beginning but got tough about the same time as cleans, at about mid-workout. I went touch'n'go on the first 4 rounds. Last two rounds I had to stop resting my head to the ground after 6-7 reps before finishing the set.
This box height was a compromise but it was actually great! There were these blocks you can pile on top of each others. One was too low so I got two of them which made it a lot higher than regular 61cm box. The height of this one was around my hips. Had to do the jumps in singles, no way I was rebounding back there. Those really got to my legs and breathing. Great workout!
Skills.
Handstand
Handstand walk
I was about to leave the premises but then realized it's ideal for practicing handstand. My shoulders and wrists felt good so I took couple of tries. First, just trying to find a stable freestanding handstand position, and then hs walk afterwards.
It felt like it went pretty well indeed. It's been a while. This is something I don't do that often. If I had training places like this I'd do it 2-3 times a week for sure! Probably spring and summer will make a difference as it's easy to practice being inverted outdoors too.
Sunday has lately been the day when I leave barbells and metcons off the program and concentrate in different types of bodyweight control movements. This time it was handstand after a long break. Had that issue with my right wrist for quite a while so that prevented handstand training but now it's all cool. I also brought weight vest with me so I played around a bit with that.
Gymnastics.
Handstand
Weighted handstand push-ups
Strict muscle-up progressions
It was freaking awesome to hit some handstand training today after a long break! Loved every attempt of it. All those attempts were around 20 seconds being inverted. There were moments where I found a zen-like state of mind where I was able to hold still, not move a muscle, and just balance it off by pressing my fingers / palm back and forth. One thing to remember, is to breath. That seems to be something I need to focus on.
Recap
I put a 9kg vest on and had some fun being upside down. Never tried that before. Handstand push-ups, it was a lot tougher naturally but the path up and down felt as natural as regular hspu's. That vest just bailed on me at one point and fell on my face =) I guess it's not made for being inverted. I don't know but it was fun.
Last part of my training session was fooling around with rings. Weighted pull-ups with false grip, then having a resistance band on the rings I tried to do strict muscle-ups, still with the vest on. Finally I took it off and attempted more strict mu's, and then practiced the sole transitions. Naturally needed the band for that.
This was the weekly gymnastics quota. I really like these days now as my muscle-ups are about to jump to the next level. Gymnastics days equals no-barbell / no-metcon programming. Simultaneously these days are my active recovery days as I don't like pure rest days that much. Not that I needed one today. Okay, my back muscles are sore in a good way.
Gymnastics.
15 muscle-ups
Handstand
L-sit to tuck hold
Elbow levers
Those muscle-ups are really coming together finally. At least there's some progression in my technique as they are somewhat lighter and I can do them with shorter recoveries. I didn't time those repetitions but it was somewhere around 10 minutes to get those reps. I took singles in the beginning, then one friend told me to take a double as singles looked too easy. That was a big motivation for me :)
After muscle-ups I took couple of sets freestanding handstand, that was okay. Then something new cool stuff on putting couple of bumper plates on top of each other, and performing L-sit on them, and from there transferring it to a tuck hold. That was a great core movement, definitely not an easy one. Finally some elbow levers and different kinds of body control movements. Great training day!
Sunday. Skills, strict ring muscle-up progressions & handstand.
Huh, my body felt wrecked after yesterday's training! Like a truck had hit me. I don't even know what the reason is, what was so different in that session but it sure feels in my body. Toni had the same feeling this morning. However, he still went to row a half marathon today in the afternoon, crazy man… =) Okay, after breakfast Pauliina had to get her training done so we hit the gym in a classic weekend style. Huge breakfast of omelette and smoothies. Keeping it clean. My effort stayed at skills training. Not a bad choice at all! Felt much better after the session than before it.
Skills.
Strict ring muscle-up progressions
Handstand
Ring muscle-ups are an obvious goat for me. If a man has not performed Amanda ever in his lifetime, it's pretty obvious that ring mu's and snatch are not his strengths. I'm gonna make them count this year. That means I got to work those elements more often. It would be freaking cool to knock couple of strict muscle-ups. I'd take them on rings but also on the bar.
I played with the rings a lot today. Those really burned my upper body in a good way. On the video you'll see some of the action. Mostly played around with that transition part. It seems too challenging at the moment to pull high enough before I would make the "sit-up" in the transition part. I tried couple of strict reps but couldn't quite nail it. Some help would definitely be welcomed.
Handstand
There were just me, Pauliina and a third person at the gym so there was plenty of space to practice my handstand skills. It was a good shot as I got couple of decent attempts under my belt. In the process I also hit a PR in the time being inverted. It was 33 seconds whereas my previous max attempts in free handstand have been around 20-25 seconds. It was also great that I wasn't walking around the gym but stayed rather close to where I wanted to stay.
These kind of days are not that often but they are always very beneficial. Just work on the skills and get better at them. These do not burden body as much as doing barbell work or tough metcons but these are fun days. And the only way to get better at skills is to practice them, no surprise there =)
Saturday. Training day at Vierumäki. 1: "Amazing race", 2: Handstand, 3: Clean and jerk
This Saturday was freaking awesome! We got a prize for winning a competition at work and we were given the opportunity to travel to Vierumäki leisure centre for a spectacular day. First, there was "Amazing Race" style competition, playful action before I took a short handstand training session. And finally we went to do clean & jerks with Toni. After eating we had a possibility to watch Finland's national weightlifting team hit their training camp. Beautiful lifts I got to say!
Amazing Race.
Race win
I had no idea what's about to happen. The only thing the program agency had told us was to wear sports clothes and be ready to move outdoors. We got some instructions and were sent of to the first task. They were all some how sporty stuff but the real thing was that we had to run around this area a lot. We were sweating a lot, and because it was a competition we ran like animals with my team. That finally turned out to be one of our strengths too and we ran by Toni's team for example. This was a little too much for him to handle ;) The trash talk had began. Well, we rocked the competition and finished it in sub 50 minutes whereas normally people go through the course in about 90 minutes. I have no idea how much we ran but Toni's guess was around 5km.
Skills.
Handstand
Because we finished the workout about half an hour quicker than the rest of the crew I had time to work on my handstand. I found a perfect place for this purpose. My first attempt was record breaking effort. For some reason it felt extremely good being upside down. I had stayed there for a while as I heard someone shout "is that difficult" and answered back yes. "Then how come you're still staying there". I don't know it myself. Once I came down I realized there was a little kiddo with his momma and the kid was interested how long I've practiced handstand.
The video below was second set, and the only one I got on my phone's camera. Couldn't stay still but anyway all efforts were alright and especially since I haven't done handstand in ages. It's a cool skill to handle and it would be nice to have more time and opportunities to go after it.
