Wednesday 29.10: Rowing Helen, Gymnastics

Wednesday. Metcon, rowing Helen. 3rds of: 400m row, 21 kb swing (20kg), 12 pull-ups. Time, 8.50. Gymnastics, handstand hold, deficit hspu's for quality.

Another benchmark lady was ahead of me today. I've done Helen once - in the beginning of my cf career - over 2 years ago. Today was a repeat workout but instead of running I went rowing. Afterwards I concentrated in bodyweight stuff, basically hanging upside down, doing static holds and hspu's. Later on Jouni arrived to the gym and we practiced front squats with him for the first time.

Rowing Helen. Time 8.50. Compare to 8.8.2012

• 3 rounds of:
• 400m row
• 21 kettlebell swing, 20kg
• 12 pull-ups

Helen was one of the first benchmark workouts I ever did, back in August 2012, that's also about when I started writing this blog. We did it together with my bro at Kauniainen's sports track. The difference with this and that was running versus rowing. Plus kb swing 2 years back were merely Russian swings, barely even eye level. Bell was same in weight. Originally it should be 24kg but I don't have access to that. I have one 20kg at home which I used 2 years ago. And the heaviest bell at our gym is also 20kg so I used that one today. I've also done a combination of DT and Helen with kettlebells last year, 25.12.2013.

This guy looks a bit different 2 years ago =) I've come a long way

This was by no means rx'd version of the workout because I rowed and the bell was 4kg too light. I understood beforehand this is gonna be rather fast workout so there's no time to start whining but just go and rip it out. On rowing I went something like 1:45 on the first round, around 1:50 on the second and a little slower on the last round. The difference between running and rowing is that you got to set yourself on the rower before you get moving. When running you can drop from the pull-up brand set off right away on that same second.

Kettlebell swings were light, I don't usually do work with anything else than 2-pood bell, that is 32kg. Completed all 3 sets unbroken, and those didn't cause any issues. These were American swings, haven't done Russians probably after the first Helen =) This naturally takes more time as the bell travels higher overhead instead of eye level.

Swings weren't that bad themselves but they consumed some of my energy on upper body so that I couldn't pull off the pull-ups unbroken. First round ub, then  8-4 and last set was 6-3-3. My grip was gone and just couldn't hold on to the bar. I tried to use much more legs in rowing to save my grip and arms for the remaining 2 movements. I was surprised the pull-ups felt that tough but that was the name of the game. Recoveries were short. Transitions were also as short as possible, and round times were 2:46, 2:58 and 2:55, pretty consistent. Great workout! As benchmark workouts tend to be =)

Gymnastics.

• 3 sets of: handstand hold (0:60, 0:45, 0:30sec)
• Deficit handstand push-ups for quality

Today's agenda was solely Helen and I had no other strictly planned workouts. I decided to throw myself in inverted position and took static holds in handstand position. First set was for one minute, second one 45 seconds and the last attempt for 30 seconds. This was useful training.

Secondly, I wanted to play around with handstand push-ups, climbing it to deficit hspu's. I didn't count them that precisely but it was basically triples at different heights. Took off with just one plate under each hand, making the deficit for about 5cm, or whatever the plate's width is. Then plate by plate I went up to 4 pieces making it somewhere between 20-30cm deficit, for a triple. I took 3 sets at this deficit. This was fun play in the end.

Friday 13.9: Light weight work

Friday. Taking it easy, preparing my body for the upcoming HC Triplet. Better be ready for 3 tough workouts. We're eager and anxious at the same time, stomach full of butterflies! Weather should be awesome, bodies are prepared and our minds with Toni are ready to get it started.

Today's schedule was light work, mostly bodyweight, pull-ups and handstand, some technique for overhead squats and snatches. It was as follows:

Foam rolling
Mobility, then:

3 rounds of:
5 strict ring pull-ups
0:30 handstand hold, then:

Overhead squat
Squat snatch

Mobility with the resistance band and lacrosse ball

Better eat some more and then take a good night sleep to wake up fresh.

Toni's workouts in the morning.

• 20min, every minute on the minute:
• 2 squat snatches.

He went from 20kg to 47.5kg, adding weight little by little.

Wednesday 21.8: Clean and jerk, toes-to-bar

Wednesday. Skills, 3 x ME handstand hold. 3x10, clean & jerk (60kg). Metcon, 6 rounds of: 5 c&j (60kg), 8 t2b. Time 8.22.

Got some new stuff from Rogue, c'mon! Gas station t-shirt, lacrosse ball and resistance band for mobility. Got to say that the ball was great. Tried it today after the training session. Anyway, today's agenda was handstand hold against wall, going for 3 sets of max effort in time. Then some long-lasting clean & jerks and finally a c&j metcon. Quite a number of clean & jerks. Mobility in the end.

Handstand hold. 3 x max effort handstand hold against wall. Results. 1:00, 0:45, 0:40. My plan was to go to a place where I would have had the chance to work on my handstand skills. That plan was flushed down the toilet so I had to change plans and improvise. Decided to stay on the wall for as long as possible, three sets for time. The pressure really starts to drill on the shoulders after a while.

Strength. 3 x 10 reps of clean & jerk @ 60kg. Something a little different. Conventionally it's been sets of 5 reps at max in a metcon / strength training or then 30 reps for time when you're doing Grace. I took a different approach. Muscle endurance through completing 10 reps in a row.

Those last reps were tough. I've been thinking (never tried) how far I could go without dropping the barbell to the ground. How many reps could I go unbroken. Some day I wish it would be near those 30 reps but that day is not looming behind the corner. Going for 10 reps was challenging, maybe not in the first set but the 2 latter ones were physically tough, especially the last 3 reps. Could have pushed some more reps but let's save those attempts to the future. The key here is to keep the barbell going. Clean it, bend your knees while catching it, then bounce it right up overhead. Once you stop after the clean, it gets heavier.

After I was driving home, I drifted away in my thinking and came across the style of workout Mikko Salo - The 2009 Champ - used to do a lot back in the days to increase shoulder strength. That was 3 rounds of 2 min amrap push press with 2 min rest between amraps. Why not transform it to clean & jerks as well. Two minutes is a long time doing c&j's. Doing a total of 3 sets of 2min totals in a lot of reps. That would definitely convert to good muscle endurance. Got to try it. It's common sense that it's gonna suck, sound horrible but still, worth trying =)

Second set of 10 clean & jerks, 60kg

Metcon. Time 8.22

• 6 rounds of:
• 5 clean & jerks, 60kg
• 8 toes-to-bar

After those tens, I decided to do something similar Pony did on Monday. He went all the way for 8 rounds with c&j's and pull-ups. My shoulders were fatigue already as I entered the gym so I completed 6 rounds and changed pull-ups to t2b's. I was able to push through each round unbroken with both movements but had to catch some breath in the transition. That was seen in the round times. I had 10 meters to walk between the stations, this time that distance was somewhat welcomed. Round times were between about a minute and 1:48.

It's actually an awesome combination to mix clean & jerks and some bodyweight movement: t2b, pull-ups, double unders, burpees, rowing. It makes it challenging on the heart, so it's exactly the way crossfit is supposed to feel.

That's a lot of weight on the PR snatch of Garret Fisher

Thursday 1.8: Handstand, split jerks, running metcon

Thursday. Skills, handstand. Strength, 1 squat clean + 3 split jerks @ 70kg for 10min. Metcon, 10 rounds of: 5 power cleans @ 70kg, run 380m. Time 24.03. Evening, cycling for cooling down and 50 pull-ups.

Great day! Skills, then we continued what we started last week with the split jerks and finally a metcon including running and power cleans. That was challenging. I believe we've had pretty awesome workouts this week with my training buddy, Toni, every day!

Skills. Handstand. Gonna keep this in my schedule regularly, trying to squeeze in 1-2 times a week. Can't develop if there's not enough repeats. We tried something different today in the end, a partner drill. Toni held my legs while I was aiming to move forward with my legs. Not a bad drill at all.

Toni concentrated in handstand hold against a wall. Static holds and then also pushing his fingers to the ground and thus making his heels pull away from the wall. He's not practiced this that much so it was definitely a good call for him!

Strength.

• Every minute on the minute for 10min
• 1 squat clean + 3 split jerks @ 70kg
• Toni did the same @ 50kg

Emom training suited here well. We were sweating like pigs after this one and got the heart rate up nicely. First one squat clean, followed by 3 split jerks. I'm using my left leg as the front leg in each lift. 70kg felt comfortable today, heavyish but manageable. Have to keep on improving my technique with the split jerks, this was the second time doing them. Somehow I enjoy them a lot! Toni did exactly the same workout, we alternated the turns.

Take a look at Toni's performance as well. How did you feel man?

Metcon. Time 24.03 / Toni 24.12

• 10 rounds of:
• 5 power cleans @ 70kg / Toni @ 50kg
• 380m run

Yes, good call. I wanted to get a lot of running because last month it somehow left in the shadows. Compared to June, it felt like I didn't run at all. Today we got 3.800m run and 50 power cleans @ 70kg. We did the workout at the same time. Toni did it with a bit lighter weight (50kg).

Round times: Don / Toni

1. 2.13 / 2.15
2. 2.23 / 2.23
3. 2.22 / 2.24
4. 2.25 / 2.32
5. 2.29 / 2.32
6. 2.29 / 2.40
7. 2.30 / 2.34
8. 2.31 / 2.31
9. 2.30 / 2.25
10. 2.07 / 1.52

We took it "easy" in the beginning. Even though it was pretty much the fastest round, I believe we didn't run that fast. At least I was afraid to get gassed too soon if I started running faster too early. All in all, the lap times remained quite stable in my opinion, not a big variance there, for neither of us. Both of us smashed the power cleans unbroken each round, and didn't practically rest before grabbing the bar after run, nor after the cleans.

Hard to say afterwards could the run have been faster in the beginning. Somehow it feels like this pace was good as I was able to maintain the pace consistent through all 10 rounds. For the first couple of rounds we ran together, then at some point there was a bit of a difference, a few tens of meters. In the last 3 rounds Toni started to put on his diesel mode and kept pacing up. He managed to fight his best lap on the last round with 1.52. I heard his breathing from far away as he was getting closer like a maniac =)

After crossing the finish line, we were exhausted. It really burnt in the breathing. Those rather heavy power cleans took some tax on the beginning of my each run. Pony said this was one of the best workouts he's ever done. I'm very happy we had the possibility to do this. Not possible at our home gym so we have to think outside the box when we hit these various training places.

Pony

Evening.

• Cycling
• 50 pull-ups

Forgot to mention this in the original post. Went cycling after I came home. Found a pull-up bar on my trip and decided to do some pull-ups, felt good! =)

Thursday 25.7: Muscle-ups, handstand

Thursday. Skills day: Muscle-ups & handstand skills.

Almost took a day off but in the evening I realized there's no reason for that. Changed my training clothes on and headed to the nearby park for some skills training. I'm happy I did it! It was about time to do some muscle-ups. Toni went to the gym in the morning to do 2 workouts.

Muscle-ups. I took a few sets. Did some pull-ups to warm-up, then a single muscle-up, felt good to do them in a normal muscle-up bar. I did mu's 10 reps when I was in Spain but the pull-up bar was so thick I couldn't wrap my fingers around it. It was cool to have a regular grip this time. Felt totally different. The thick bar was a good variation, no doubt.

On the first set I did 3 reps, then 4 (PR) and finally 3 reps. Total of 11 reps for this evening. My legs didn't swing that much apart from each other on the pull-stage as before. At least it felt like I was able to swing myself higher and got landed there in a better position. I was supposed to bring a rubber band with me so I could have wrapped it around my ankles. With the help of that I would have practiced high pulls and forced my legs to stay together. Next time I'll try to bring it with me.

Handstand. Also some handstand training to accompany the muscle-ups.

Toni's strength.

• Tabata deadlift, 110kg.
• Result. 5, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 reps. Total of 16 reps

Toni's metcon. Result 5 rounds

• 18min amrap of:
• 15 box jumps 61cm
• 9 push press, 52.5kg
• 9 toes-to-bar

Thursday 11.7: Handstand walk and push presses

Thursday. Handstand walk training. Push press, emom 3 reps @ 70kg for 10min.

Another day at Eltsu, a traditional track and field location in Helsinki. It's the warm-up track for IAAF World Championship in Athletics, a beautiful place and it shines the athleticism gloriously. Half of the training is even to be at that place =) I did handstand hold and handstand walk for 12 minutes, then moved on to work more on my shoulders. Push press emom training, repeated it from last Friday.

Handstand walk. I really feel like I'm each time taking steps forward in my progression towards handstand walk. I was able to stay inverted for 10-15 seconds a few times. That's incredibly rewarding as this movement seemed very difficult at first and being able to walk upside down seemed like a very distant dream. However, my keeping it on the schedule on a regular basis, watching videos from crossfit sites, I've been able to translate this into my new skill as well. Extremely glad!

Handstand walk

Handstand walk back and forth =)

Push press. Compare to 5.7.2013.

• Push press, every minute on the minute (emom)
• 3 reps @ 70kg for 10 minutes
• Max effort on the last round

Yes, I did this one a week ago. Then, I completed the first round with 60kg, 2nd and 3rd with 65kg and the rest with 70kg. And I had some troubles with the last rounds, it was rather heavy. Today I started off with 70kg and went all the way without changing anything. I felt strong. Of course I started to feel the burden but still had some energy left on the last round. I decided to try max effort on the 10th minute and complete as many reps as possible unbroken. I got 5 reps and the sixth failed to lock out.

God damned this has been a good training week. I'm very happy for the results and workouts I've had the possibility to complete. Yesterday I had the chance to get together with Toni and Marko, it's always a boost when you have training partners with you. I've been on a summer holiday so it has given me these options to workout in places that are fully booked after office hours.

In the evening we are flying to southern Spain together with Pauliina to spend a week with her parents. Barbells are nowhere near by so got to stay imaginative with bodyweight workouts. I'm definitely going to chill out and rest as well. I don't remember a time when I had 2 rest days in a row. Let's see what it's like to train in 30-36 degrees, huh… I know there's a pull-up bar and my father-in-law has seen some guys doing crossfit workouts on the beach, pulling sled and stuff, interesting!

Sunday 7.7: Handstand training

Sunday. Handstand training.

This Sunday is the rest day of the week. It's a hot day so we headed to cool off to a lake. The water was probably somewhere around 18 degrees so it felt cold when entering there. No chance to enter the waterline easily, had to run and dive to shock the body. It's easier this way, and after a while it wasn't so cold anymore =) It was the first time this summer swimming if you don't count a pool at the swimming stadium. At the end of next week we are heading to Spain with Pauliina so more swimming is definitely ahead!

Handstand. I wasn't supposed to workout today. Just about 10 minutes handstand training. The field was perfect for this purpose so it was very hard not to utilize the possibility. At times I found stability very well, taking into consideration my skill level. I'm getting better and that's very inspiring! Most of the times I'm falling back to where I started from after a few seconds. I recon it's because I don't have the guts to let my legs go forward enough over my head. That's why my legs start to fall back to where they came from. At that point it's difficult to stop the fall with the core/arms. Sometimes I manage that, sometimes don't.

I'm getting more and more confident and natural being inverted with free hand standing without the help of walls. In the beginning I tried to stay balanced and later on the goal was to handstand walk.

Tomorrow I'm gonna meet my bro to do some serious training. I'm having a summer holiday for the next 2 weeks so I'm definitely going to train at places where I don't have the possibility to practice at when working, because of schedules. Looking forward to it!!!

Dusty Hyland teaches some new steps in mastering handstand walk

Wednesday 3.7: Bodyweight action

Wednesday. Bodyweight action.

Took it easy today. Practically no barbells at all today. Just worked on some split jerk with empty barbell, it's hard to land the feet in perfect position. Probably because I just haven't practiced that movement. Only occasionally. I worked on elbow levers and planche hold. Then some handstand hold agains the wall for time (max hold 1:00) and then tried to let my heels get off the wall and hold my body still.

Mostly this day was not physically taxing except those elbow levers. I definitely felt them in my shoulders. This Prasara Yoga stuff I've learned from Blair Morrison is sick. Looks very easy and is extremely demanding. I have a long way to go before I feel comfortable in those positions. I will still determinedly work on those movements to improve body control. It's tough, excruciating, difficult to learn but still probably very rewarding once you get the hold of it. And I'm sure it not only bodyweight movements but also other movements easier where you handle some weights. And obviously mobility enhances as well.

Wednesday's focus areas.

• Elbow levers
• Planche
• Handstand hold against wall
• Handstand practice
• Stretching

Toni's workouts. Shoulder press, emom.

• Shoulder press, 50kg
• Emom for 12 min, 3-5reps
• 5-5-5-5-3-3-3-3-3-4-4-5

 

Monday 22.4: Grace, headstand, handstand

Monday. Grace. Time 3.48. Handstand hold, headstand & handstand training.

There are a couple of benchmark workouts that make me nervous. Some of these make my stomach go upside down and just before the zero-hour for a second I try to find an excuse why not to do them. That's only because they are cruel and make your body scream for pain. Then I get a grip and talk myself up to crash the workout. The feeling after these workouts is something that can't be described in words. It's freaking awesome, the reason I love crossfit and today was no exception!!!

Grace. Time 3.48

• 30 clean & jerk, 60kg

It's unfortunate they forbid videoshooting your own training sessions at our Box so I don't have video material to offer from my newest Grace. Sometimes it's possible to take pictures or videos if there are no other people working out but today there were plenty of them. This was the first time I did it with the original weights, rx'd weight is 60kg. For the first time I did it back in September 2012, then together with Toni we completed a double Grace in October 2012, and the last time was in December 2012, all were done with 50kg on the barbell. That weight is history, the only possibility is to do it with 60kg nowadays.

My strategy was to do sets of 6 reps for as long as possible. I recall doing the previous Grace in sets of 6 reps. Today the sets were 6-6-5-4-4-2-1-1-1. The breaks between sets were rather short in my opinion, at least they felt like it =) The first 6 reps were done in about 20+ seconds and 12 reps were in records after 60 seconds. I tried to keep the breaks somewhere around 10-15 seconds in the beginning. From 17 reps on the burden was going up rapidly. It was a tough mental play from then on. I forced some reps up even though my body wanted to take a rest. From 21 I got to 24, then a double and finally 3 singles in the end with no rest between them, only dropping and lifting again. Finally the clock stopped at 3.48.

Tension in forearms was tingling and definitely the most difficult part was the jerk. I believe my clean is at a pretty ok level and I didn't have problems in getting the bar at my chest. Some of the jerks were more like push press or even a shoulder press. For some reason you might sometimes forget to utilize the legs and hip drive and that was exactly what happened at some reps. That's why they felt heavier than they should have felt in the end. Luckily I had no failed reps during the workout, managed to push the bar all the way up to full extension with each attempt. I was extremely satisfied after the workout as I felt I gave my everything to Grace. My goal with both Grace and Fran was to go under 4 minutes and I reached those objectives with both of these benchmark girls.

Inverted. Headstand and handstand practice

• 3 x ME static handstand hold against wall
• Headstand training
• Handstand training

My bro has strong handstand skills and he's been talking me into testing max effort of static handstand hold against wall. I took three attempts, first attempt was 1 minute, then I had to drop off the wall, the following attempts were half a minute each. It probably wasn't the easiest one after doing 30 clean & jerks =)

Then I did some headstand and handstand training. Once again, headstand rolled well. I had no problems in finding a stable form and holding a straight body from head to toes. I also tried another type of approach. Previously I've held my hands close to my head, actually they are located just beside my head, touching the back of my head. The stability comes from head, forearms and elbows touching the ground. The other option is to create a triangle from both palms and a head. Both versions worked for me. In the end I did some free handstand training. To finish the training I did mobility for lower body.

Toni's workouts.

• Back squats 5x5, 100kg
• For 10 min, 30sec on, 30sec off. Distance 1.751m

Pony's goal was 5 sets of 5 reps and he managed to complete them as planned, all sets with 100kg. From the other side of the gym I heard some growling so I guess he really had to focus on the last reps =) That rowing metcon starts to become a classic among us, it definitely is a good workout. You can do it for 10, 20 or 30 minutes, all are good versions.

Friday 1.2: Skills day

Friday. Skills oriented day. Plenty of different movements.

It's been quite a week after Barbara, Isabel, squats and cleans so today's goal was to take it a bit easier. Well, my shoulders and hands got to test today anyway as I was like a little boy when playing with the rings. They were my focus area but I also did other skills training.

Ring skills.

• Invert hold
• Skin the cat
• Levers
• Ice cream makers
• Ring push-ups

It's simply fun! Play with the rings. Probably should play a little more to someday master the muscle-up as well. I took a few sets of inverted holds, skin the cat, levers and one set of ice cream makers. To the end 3x15 ring push-ups.

Other skills.

• Double unders
• Chest-to-bar pull-ups
• Handstand hold
• Handstand push-ups (max PR 6 reps)
• One-handed push-ups
• Pistols

It was awesome to see I was able to hit my chest to the bar with pull-ups. It's been hard previously. I thought it would be more difficult but it actually touched the bar. Yeah baby, it inspired me to practice them more in the future. Handstand was another area where I wanted to put effort today. I wanted to break that old record of handstand push-ups so I added one rep to the old PR. Took some other sets as well. A newcomer was one-handed push-ups, positively surprised that I got them on the first try =)

Take a look at one of my training partner's show of one-handed push-ups.

One-handed push-ups, Anton

Tuesday 27.11: Shoulder press, handstand, du

Tuesday. Shoulder press 5 sets (max PR 62.5kg), metcon of handstand hold and double unders, for quality.

My body was still asleep when arriving at the gym, this time alone, Toni will do his training in the evening. I was very happy to hit new records with shoulder press even with a tired body. I haven't done double unders lately so I included a metcon with DUs and handstand moves. This metcon was not for time but for quality with minimum rest.

Strength. Shoulder press 5-5-2-1-f (50, 55, 60, PR 62.5kg, 65 failed). Another record with presses, these have gone well lately! I believe this was the fifth or sixth time in November to hit PRs with presses, that's scary… Shoulder press has improved 7.5kg, push press 7.5kg and bench press 10kg in one month. Today I took 5-rep sets with 50 and 55kg, tried the same with 60kg but managed only 2 reps. Decided to go further with singles, got a new PR with 62.5kg and 65kg was halfway there but didn't get that through :)

Shoulder press, 62.5kg PR

Metcon. Static handstand hold, handstand push-ups, double unders for quality.

• 30sec handstand hold
• 50 double unders
• 5 handstand push-ups
• 50 double unders
• 30sec handstand hold
• 50 double unders
• 30sec handstand hold
• 50 double unders

Total of 200 double unders and hanstand holds as well as few hspu. I was thinking about doing 5 handstand push-ups (my favorites!) each round but reality came into play. Damned they were tough today after shoulder press. Doing double unders also hit my shoulders big time so I did mostly handstand holds against a wall. I wasn't sure how DUs are gonna rock but they rocked solidly! I didn't stumble even once, I only had to take some breaks as my shoulders were going numb, haha. It was awesome to see the skills have not vanished.

Sunday 28.10: Back squat, bench press, pull-ups, ring dips

Sunday. Three workouts. 10-8-6-4-2 of back squats and bench press, for quality. 10-8-6-4-2 of pull-ups and ring dips, for quality. Handstand holds and L-sit holds. Start with 1k row, time 3.30.

L-sit hold

I just love it that in the weekends there's no rush at all compared to weekdays. Work sets its own barriers for crossfit as well as my floorball season, which lasts until March. They are not hindering it but certainly I have to plan my schedule better. Pauliina has been in Sweden as exchange student for couple of months which has allowed me to fully concentrate in enhancing my overall conditioning through hard training. Let's see what happens when she comes back =) No, really, she enjoys sports and encourages me a lot to do crossfit and gives all the space I've needed for crossfit this far. She often joins me at the gym, she is just perfect to me. I love her, couldn't imagine being happier!

Today I did three workouts, the first one is inspired by Rob Orlando who often combines two or three strength movements and does them with significant loads. I combined back squat and bench press this time with heavy kilos. Second workout was similar but performed totally with own bodyweight, pull-ups and ring dips. At the end my third workout was pretty much copied by gymnasticswod's workout of the day, holds of handstand and L-sit. Naturally I started the whole day by rowing. Time 3.30. Then some pvc pipe dribbling, stretching, opening up my joints throughout the body and going after bear complex.

First workout. For quality. Total of 30 reps each. 85% of max.

• 10-8-6-4-2
• Back squat, 100kg
• Bench press, 65kg

These weights are heavy for me. About 85% of my max reps. Back squat max is 117.5kg and 75kg is the heaviest I've tried by far for bench press. So going after 30 reps each movement was supposed to be tough. They weren't easy at least. All sets unbroken except for that round of sixes where my last press didn't come up. I had to lower it to my chest and roll it away. I forgot to put the safety bars there... Must have looked simply stupid as I was getting away under the bar. Other than that rep, the workout was a good one. A lot of reps with heavy kilos is exactly what I was looking for. The sets were tough, no doubt about it. I liked the last reps in each set as they didn't come easy. Back squat actually was relatively light (?) but the bench press's last 1-2 reps each round were quite heavy, me likey. My chest felt the burden at the end.

Second workout. For quality. Total of 30 reps each. Own bodyweight.

• 10-8-6-4-2
• Pull-ups
• Ring dips

I had to take a 10min rest period before moving on to second workout because my chest had taken some pressure with bench press. All pull-ups went unbroken until the end, not bad, could've gone longer. I was also able to do some kipping movement there even though I've always thought that is not the ideal spot to have a pull-up bar, as you can see in the video. My ring dips were okay for 10 and 8 rep rounds. I had to split the 6 reps in 2x3. Fours went in 2-2 and the last two were 1-1. There were one rep in the both of the last two rounds which I didn't count as reps, otherwise the last set would've been unbroken. I like these both moves a lot. That can also be seen in my programming, there have been quite a number of both of them lately. There was quite a long period where pull-ups were non-existing. That was due to my shoulder problems. Those worries are gone and I've introduced pull-ups to program again.

Third workout. Three set of holds each. Own bodyweight.

• 60sec handstand hold
• 60sec L-sit hold
• 30 sec handstand hold
• 30 sec L-sit hold
• 20 sec handstand hold
• 20 sec L-sit hold

Pretty much directly taken from gymnasticwod's workout of the day from today, Sunday 28th. Only the length varied a bit and they added 100 reps of hollow rocks to the end. One minute of handstand hold felt long, that was pretty much the top length for me after all the training today. The second round was a bit short in my opinion, I could have taken 45 seconds. Last round of 20sec was easy. However, I wanted to do same length for both movements, that's the reason why I put only 30 and 20 seconds in rounds 2 and 3. Those L-sits were awful. The first round went surprisingly well. However, in the second round my legs were shaking so bad that I was sure I wouldn't last the whole time. Somehow I managed. Last round went nicely but probably couldn't have gone for half a minute.

The day was hard. Rowing fast for 1k. Back squatting and bench pressing with 85% of max weights for 30 reps each. Then pull-ups and ring dips, 30 each. In the end different holds. I believe my entire body felt it today. Legs were given the "easiest" role today, upper body definitely got the highest pressure moments.