Thurday. Push jerks, build up to a heavy triple (max 90kg). Conditioning, every 3:00 x 7min: 10 burpee box jump + 15 wb.
Plan was to do some emom snatches. My back was still sore from Tuesday's deadlifts. It's common that going a bit heavier on the pulls my back definitely feels it the following couple of days. Going to a squat position didn't feel attractive so I changed the plans when I was warming up. Remembered the good streak of overhead strength and body felt receptive for that so I decided to go for push jerk triples.
Overhead.
Push jerk triples
Build up to a heavy triple (40, 50, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, PR 90kg)
It was probably about a week ago when I got 5 reps at my 1RM @ 85kg on this movement. Split jerk can carry heavier weights but that doesn't feel so natural in my shoulders so I've worked much more on push jerks lately. Today I thought 85kg should not be an issue (if everything was going good) and possibly a new record on push jerk might be true.
I built up to a heavy triple on 5kg increments after 70kg. It was kind of funny that 50kg and 70kg barbells felt heavier and maybe not that smooth. The other sets felt goof. After completing 80kg set without problems I knew 85kg would be cool too. Got that completed touch'n'go too. At that moment I realized I'm gonna put 90kg over my head at least once. It was huge thing to make it three times. Even on would have been a record.
Intervals.
Every 3:00, for 21 minutes
10 burpee box jumps + 15 wall ball shots
These were all-in intervals. Got 10 reps of burpee boxes as soon as possible, then walked couple of meters to the wall ball station to start throwing the ball around. This burned my legs a lot! Especially on the wall balls. Right after I finished the last box jump it hit me in the legs, and throwing ball got them even more fired up already on the first reps. This was a good conditioning piece and got mental at around 3 rounds. I had thought about doing it for 5 sets but took couple of extra ones to dig deeper.
Tuesday. Freestyling with clean & jerk + split jerk (PR 95kg, split jerk PR 100kg). Pair wod with bro: 5 rounds of: 300m run, 5 clean & jerks (60kg), max effort double unders while the other partner runs.
Training day with my older brother! These days tend to be heavy in nature. My shoulders were smoked after we left the building. So was Sipa's. In other words: great training!!! We did some sort of clean & jerk complex, single clean & jerks and split jerks. Finished the training with a pair wod, running, c&j and double unders.
PR BABY!!!
Strength. Going by feeling
Started with 2 cleans + 3 jerks (including warm-up: 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90kg), then
Clean & jerk (PR 95kg, failed on 100kg), then
Split jerk from rack (PR 100kg)
We started by doing a complex of 2 squat cleans + 2 push / split jerks. The goal was to go as heavy as possible doing this type of complex. Other option would have been simple and old school singles. But we wanted something different. After the barbell got too heavy, I decided to do singles. End result was that I completed 2 personal records: clean & jerk with 95kg and 100kg jerk.
It was light in the beginning for sure. Tried to do warm-up with bear walk and by using resistance band. Then some barbell work and I started working towards clean & jerks. Started with light weight, moving up together with my brother. 2 hang squat cleans up to 70kg, then 2 jerks. On 80kg I did a hang squat clean but the second rep failed so I repeated it from ground. Went up to 85kg, completed it and decided to go for 90kg. I dropped the bar after the first clean but finished it till the end with 2 split jerks.
Next stop, 95kg. Clean, failed, what? Why would I fail on a clean at 95kg? This wasn't the best of my clean days. That was clear to me already earlier on. My technique wasn't as explosive as it needs to be. I was able to pull the bar at a decent hight but I wasn't going under it fast enough. I still got good results which is of course encouraging. Took the 95kg again and completed it nicely.
Tried to clean 100kg once but as it failed I decided to put the bar on the rack and jerk it from there. I was confident enough to get the bar up. As you see from the video my legs are not doing the job they were created for, not going under the bar as fiercely as would be smart. But that's the way it is when you're handling weights that are on the limits of your strength. This was definitely somewhere around there and the main point is that I got the hundred kilos up in the sky!!!
Pair wod.
Partner 1: 300m run
Partner 2: complete 5 clean & jerks (60kg), then max effort double unders while partner 1 runs 300m
Result. 300 double unders (60 each round)
As if our shoulders weren't smashed already, we created a pair wod on the go with Sipa. The other one runs for 300m (back and forth 150m), and the other one has that time to complete 5 clean & jerks with 60kg and the remaining time as many reps as possible of double unders.
My double unders were good today. Completed 60 reps each round, total of 300 reps in the workout. I did 20 reps on average per set. Completing double unders after having ran for 300m and completing 5 unbroken c&j's right after it was a bit challenging. It would have been nice to breath every once in a while… =) Good breather!
We both completed the clean & jerks unbroken. Both of our shoulders were in pain already before the workout so you can probably imagine the feelings in the middle of the workout. Still, I'm glad we nailed it unbroken. Had to take a pause before starting the double unders.
My brother did similar training with me. As I arrived, he was holding 70kg overhead and he was squatting like there was a feather above him. He soon went to 80kg (current PR) and finally did 85kg, a new PR. Looked good! He also tried to go for 90kg but he failed to lock out the bar overhead. Great results bro!
All in all, this was a great training day! And these days with Sipa tend to bring in quite a burden on the body. Enjoyed every minute of it!
Tuesday. Du skills. Split jerks 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (max PR 95kg). Overhead squats 3-3-3 (max 60kg). Metcon, pair wod with bro. Time around 21 min.
Training day with my bro, Sipa, was destined to be tough! A lot of work, took a lot of time as well. Jump rope skills to begin with. Strength training of split jerks from rack, then overhead squats. Finally a bad ass running metcon. C'mon!
Skills. Double unders. For some reason my du's didn't rock today. My shins were aching from the very first rep so I missed the relaxed feet to make it successful. I've progressed to a good level in the du's and in the last du-metcon was able to nail 30-rep sets unbroken. Today it was sticky both in the skills and metcon part. I wasn't able to keep my legs straight, had to bend them and make it more taxing in all ways.
Jerks. 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, PR 95kg, 100kg failed). Yeah baby!!! Got a new personal record! We took the barbell from the rack and focused purely on the jerk part. Got to try clean & jerk from ground as well someday but today's focus was on the jerk only. We've taken some split jerk training lately and this was a continuance to that progress.
Starting with 3x3, then 3x2 and finally 3xsingles, with increasing weights naturally. I took off from 60kg, adding 5kg after each set. I had it written in the calendar already couple of days ago that I'm gonna put 95kg in the air with my straight hands. I've had the time to mentally prepare for that specific lift. It's been haunting me since the last time I tried that weight in this same place.
I felt like my technique looked quite similar in all lifts. Surely there's a lot to do, no one can argue about that but still I feel tremendously happy that I'm able to maintain some sort of technical persistence. The lifts looked pretty much alike. The weight wasn't heavy today. Even though it was a very tough week and weekend I was able to get through this day with pride.
My bro also is in the early steps of split jerks so we both felt today's lifts took as forward. Still, got to be lifting way more to get technique better.
Overhead squats. 3-3-3 (50, 60, 60kg). This is the strong area of my bro. He's been taking 80kg overhead squats in the past while my 1RM is at 70kg. Today I stayed at 50-60kg on the sets. At first the bar felt like a feather after having almost 100kg on the bar. Once we hit 50kg+ the game changed a lot. The burden started to feel on the shoulders and wrists and it was difficult to maintain a good solid stance and form. My knees leaned way too much forward and I wasn't able to "sit in the hole" by putting weight on the heels. Sipa made a better effort on this one.
Metcon. Time around 21min
500m run / max effort wall balls, 9kg
500m run / max effort double unders
500m run / max effort burpees
500m run / max effort wall balls, 9kg
This was a nice one. We pondered around this for some days =) Both wanted to have running as main ingredient and then bodyweight movements accompanied as well. My goal was to have wall balls 'cause I know my bro has one. Then we agreed on the above.
I started with running while Sipa stayed to go all-in with wall balls. Once I finished running, we switched places, he went running and I continued with wb's. On the next round the bodyweight was du's, then burpees and finishing with wall balls again. So this was a pair wod with 4km running for time. In between we completed as many reps as possible while the partner was running.
I got 60 wall balls on the first round, 100 du's, 45 burpees and 50 wb's in the end. Sipa always started with the movement while I was running so once I got to the bodyweight movement, I knew how many reps he'd done so I had a good number where to target. Always trying to top his score of course.
There might be something awkwardly wrong with me but I love wall balls… I've heard people hate them. It's a tough movement and let's no part of your body to rest. Kind of like a lighter version of a thruster. Got a total of 110 reps today. Looking forward to performing Karen some day, which is 150 wb's for time with 9kg weight.
But those double unders. I'm disappointed in my body not being able to work strongly with them today. Don't remember when I have struggled this much with them. At this point my breathing was heavy though, I jumped through 100 reps while Sipa ran that 500m distance.
Burpees at this point of the game were painful. The only reason I got to 45 reps was because I knew my bro had done 43. The only thing bouncing in my head was to beat that score. In the end the wall balls were naturally tougher than in the end so I reached the 50 rep mark.
These strange place workouts with Sipa and/or Toni are spectacular. These allows us to drop barbells which eases the programming by concentrating olympic lifts to these days. Couldn't try 100kg jerks at my own Box 'cause dropping is not allowed. Have to keep on coming to weightlifting spots in the winter time as well. Thanks bro for today's training session!!!
Today was all about doing strength singles. I had planned to do snatches, clean & jerk, front squat and back squat, all according to Diane Fu's training program. My time was a bit short so I had to eliminate snatch and back squat from the equation so I only did CJ and front squat. No metcons today.
Strength.
Clean & jerk, 70, 75, 80, 85, 87.5kg (clean successful, jerk failed). PR's in clean and c&j!
Front squat, 100, 110, 120kg, 130f, 130f
Awesome! I had put on my PR shirt and was ready to upgrade some digits on the max loads =) My clean has taken some serious steps forward this year, I believe, and through the latest development - squat cleans - I've been able to add load constantly. I have also added hang cleans to my selection way more than before. All in all, there's been a good number of various reps so this was only a consequence of all those. I'm very satisfied!
I began the clean & jerk sets from 70kg, then adding 5kg until 85kg, which was my precious max for clean and 2.5kg beyong my jerk max (82.5kg). Jerking it up felt good and it actually came up a bit easier than the 80kg, which startled me big time =) At 80 I had to push the last centimeters hard to reach full range. At 85 it came easier, nice one.
I realized going for 90kg would not have been the smartest thing so I went for 87.5kg. I managed to get it at my chest at first try with a deep squat clean. My jerk got half way but wasn't able to get it all the way. Split jerk would help a lot in this movement. I don't think I'm trying max weights at home box as I can't drop the weights but I've already spotted a place where olympic lifts can be done properly so I believe we'll deah there with Toni some day next week. I tried clean & jerk with 87.5kg another time and I got that clean part of it successful for the second time in a row! Jerk was bit of a joke this time but how awesome was it to get that clean twice with a new PR! And just moments ago my jerk also improved to 85kg. Great day!
With front squats I got too greedy. I took 80kg up, then 100, 110, 120kg. All came up solidly, after which I put 125 on the barbell. Thought about it for a few seconds, then decided to change directly to 130kg, my current max. That 120kg was so light. That was a stupid move this time, I believe I should have taken 125kg up once and only then continue forward. There was a slight mental hesitation after having 130kg in front rack position and bouncing back up from the bottom position. I got it up enough to know it's only a matter of mental strength but for some reason I thought I can't lift it so I dropped it. I knew right after it I should have delivered it all the way up. The second try wasn't that good, my stomach was already full of satisfaction I suppose so I didn't get that flow zone on anymore.
It was a good training day. I would have liked to go through all four movements but had not enough time to do them all. Toni is travelling this week as well, hopefully he finds that mental toughness to create space for some insane training.
In the evening we went for a one hour stroll in the forest with Pauliina for active recovery =)
