Sunday. Every 0:30, for 10min: 1 squat clean (up to 100kg). Emom x 10min. Odd, 12 hspu. Even, 12 k2e.
There was a tight time window in the evening to get some fitness done at the gym. There was simply no other soul at the so it was kind of funny to hit it. That's fine by me though! I went for cleans, hspu's and k2e's.
Sunday evening set-up
Oly.
Every 0:30, for 10 minutes, perform 1 squat clean
80, 80, 80, 80kg
85, 85, 85, 85kg
90, 90, 90, 90kg
95, 95, 95, 95kg
100, 100, 100, 100kg
My legs are trashed. Maybe the reason for this is the metcon with running included. Haven't run in ages - not a good choice in the long run - but that's the situation right now. Foam rolling these quads was painful. Anyway, I wanted to hit some cleans, been missing those.
Because I was in more or less hurry it needed to be efficient. Emom training suited perfectly for today. One lift every 30 seconds. This started at 80kg, then jumped 5kg up every 2 minutes. That was 4 lifts per weight. I'm very happy on getting up to 100kg for 4 lifts in the end with good confidence despite the smashed legs.
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute x 8 minutes
Odd min, 12 handstand push-ups
Even, 12 knees-to-elbows
Jumped into this with about 3 minute recovery after cleans. This was intentionally short and thus I added some reps to what I would normally do in emom workouts. That means more reps on the handstand push-ups than traditionally. 12 reps per minute is no joke but I got through them nicely. On the last minute I took one fail but other than that it was rather smooth.
Don't even remember when I had done knees-to-elbow's for the last time. Usually when I go after something like this, it's most likely t2b's. Or ghd's if we can count them as similar movements. These were a nice variance and they rolled smoothly.
Friday. Overhead singles. Metcon, 5rds of: 10 thruster (40kg), 15 k2e, 20 cal row. Time, 13.20
Morning gym. It actually felt pretty good from the get-go. Strength portion was progression that started about a week ago. Various styles of overhead press or jerk. My right hammy is still recovering so I didn't go all the way to split jerks. Metcon was a great one.
Overhead.
Shoulder press 1-1-1 (63kg)
Push press 1-1-1 (73kg)
Push jerk 1-1-1 (83kg)
Last time the weights were 60-70-80-90 kilos. Today I added 3kg to each movement. Shoulder presses were okay. I took 'em on video and realized on the second rep that I push the barbell too much in front in the beginning. So I tried to fix that for the final rep. It felt better.
Push presses were the easiest one. For some reason they felt shaky in the beginning but got better each rep. Push jerks are the ones I have the most issues. That seems to be some kind of mobility issue. I feel tight when having a close grip with barbell overhead. If I'm doing split jerks, that doesn't bother but in this kind of power position it feels a bit awkward. I think 85kg is the ultimate heaviest I've ever push jerked so these were pretty close.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
10 thruster, 40kg
15 knees-to-elbows
20 cal row
Thrusters are the king. I used to think if there was only one movement you were able to do for the rest of your life, it would be thruster. So today it was 10 reps to start the round, then knees-to-elbows. An element I don't remember when was the last time. Must have been a year or so. Toes-to-bar is the more classical way to do pretty much the same thing. That didn't feel good in my leg so I subbed it to this one.
Got these unbroken in every round. Last 2 rounds were more of a battle but something I was able to push through. It was more dependent of grip strength. It started to get slippery at times but I was able to re-grip at the right times.
Overhead strength
Rowing was 20 calories, that equalled to something like 270 meters if I looked it correctly on the first round. Don't know why but completing 300 meters feels easier than 20 calories. There is something with the calories that mess with my head. One calorie is about the same as one stroke. This was a good workout. My strategy was to go unbroken on the movements and took the recovery between stations. You can see the first 10 minutes of the wod in the video below.
This training day wasn't one of the best. There's not much to be told to the future. I felt tired after being at work yesterday evening and today for the entire day. Okay, that's normal to a lot of people but that messed up my routines. I tend to workout quite a lot so these kind of things have effect. How the body gets a chance to recover, sleep and eat.
Metcon. Time, 19.30
5 rounds of:
7 handstand push-ups
7 thrusters, 40kg
7 knees-to-elbows
7 deadlift, 110kg
7 burpee
7 kettlebell swing, 32kg
7 pull-ups
This was a version of a hero workout Seven. Awesome workout to say the least. But as much awesomely wrong choice for today. Body was simply not receptive of this one. Hspu's were probably the easiest part of the entire workout.
I had 40, 50 and 60kg barbells for thrusters in the warm-up and each of them hurt in my elbows. Decided to drop it down to 40kg so that would not become an issue. It was okay, not good but doable. K2e's felt very easy after doing t2b's and ghd sit-ups much more lately. Don't even remember when k2e's were in my metcons last time.
It was surprising how tough the deadlift felt. My back was taking the hit big time. Even though form remained solid all the way. It was just not my day of training. Burpees, kb swings and pull-ups all felt a bit more tiring than normally.
Sandpaper
Afterwards I felt a bit disappointed I didn't just go to a recovery walk with my baby as she suggested. Luckily she was still up for the challenge so I drove home, and we went to a walk in the woods late in the evening, and my mood got much better immediately. Just needed some relaxing time outdoors in the best company ever.
Earlier today I bought sandpaper for hand maintenance purposes. Got to say that has most likely been the wisest decision ever. That plus beeswax. These hands have never looked better. No more calluses, no more ripped hands please!
Sunday was time for a benchmark workout. I browsed through some archives and found an interesting one named Filthy Fifty. It's been a while since I did it last time and my memories are quite horrific about this one. My body felt a little wrecked after breakfast so it was only suitable that we went to the gym later in the afternoon.
Mobility.
Burgener warm-up drills
Sotts press 5x5 (20kg)
Prior to the metcon I did lots of mobility stuff to get my body loosened up and ready for the metcon. Most importantly, to improve my mobility in hips and shoulders. There are some tightness that needs to be worked on. Coach Burgener has awesome tools for this so I've been following he's tips on those occasions where I have enough time.
Today I also did something I haven't been able to earlier. Well, I've done sorts presses with a pvc pipe and with another kind of pipe that weighs couple of kilos. But doing it with a barbell has been off limits this far. At least I don't remember doing them with 20kg bar.
It wasn't as natural as I'd like it to be and look like but I'm getting there. These steps aren't always huge but the most important thing is I'm getting to the right direction. And that's definitely what's happening. This last half a year has been a big thing considering my mobility, in both hips and shoulders.
My back rounds a bit when I'm in the rock bottom position of the overhead squat. That can be seen in those sotts presses. I'm not feeling like home in there but this position is already possible in general and that's a big thing for me.
Recap
Filthy Fifty. Time, 23.33
50 box jumps, 61cm
50 jumping pull-ups
50 kettlebell swing, 16kg
50 walking lunges
50 knees-to-elbows
50 push press, 20kg
50 back extensions
50 wall ball shots, 10kg
50 burpees
50 double unders
Lot of action going on in here! First of all, this was the first time I did this workout with rx'd box jumps. Previous times it's been a bench for about 40cm. That's a totally different game and I noticed it right away on the first 2 elements. Box jumps got to my legs and they weren't so fresh for the jumping pull-ups. For some reason I had no pulling power on the "pull-ups". I really don't know what the standard is for the jumping pull-ups. Box took me 1:55 and jumping pull-ups 3:05.
Kb swings were like I wasn't doing anything, it was feather light weight. Got them unbroken all the way, it took 1:42. I'm used to moving double the weight, pretty much the only bell I'm handling is the 2-pood version.
Walking lunges were completed by stepping around the gym. Had to stand up at some time of the round, after thirty something. Those took 1:31. K2e's were bad. I thought I'd rock them but that was not the case. Got them something like 8-8-8-6, and from then on I have no memory at all. That also took some of the intensity off because I had to come down from the pull-up bar. Total time for the k2e was 3:34.
Push press was luckily light weight, completed them in 30-10-10 reps with a total time of 1:58. Back extensions were done in the same manner with same rep scheme, and those took about the same time, 1:49.
Then the heavy breathing began. Wall balls, burpees and double unders. Until this point this had not been the best intensity I could imagine. Had to substitute the wb's to moving 10kg bumper plate up and down. I pushed the plate strong up in the air as if I was throwing a wb, and held my hands up there to "receive" the ball coming back from the wall. Got these done in 3 sets, most likely 20-15-15 reps, time was 2:16.
Burpees were awful! Those bastards took me 4:42, and they totally beat me up. I'm kind of disappointed in not being mentally strong enough to keep pounding my chest to deck continuously. Because I strongly believe burpee is a movement where you actually can move all the time. It's a conscious decision to stop moving. I got these done in sets of 10 reps. Those took an eternity.
Final movement was double unders. Simple at this stage of the workout. I just couldn't grab the jump rope right away. It's quick to go through them anyway, it was 0:53 for this final element, in sets of 30 and 20 reps.
Good workout for sure. Not awesome intensity in the beginning but towards the end it got serious. In the beginning it was more like muscle burn and I couldn't push through for example 50 k2e's. That was impossible. That caused me to have rest periods and breathing was well under control throughout the first 15 minutes.
This stuff is incredible. Each event from the 2009 Crossfit Games. The year our very own Mikko Salo dominated the Games. Crossfit HQ has posted each individual event for both men and women on their Youtube channel. Probably the best way to spend a weekend, enjoy!
Monday. Strength, emom x 12min: 1 power clean + 3 split jerk (across 70kg). Metcon, 4rds of: 500m row, 25 push-ups, 12 k2e. Time 14.29.
Finally some overhead work for this guy. For some reason I've taken less weight overhead lately. No specific reason, just haven't done them that much. I took 'em as emom training and then hit a pure cardio blast workout: rowing, old school push-ups and knees-to-elbows. It was a tight package session and tomorrow I'm getting outdoors with 95% probability so it's gonna be a different type of workout again with some friends.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute for 12 minutes
1 power clean + 3 split jerk
All sets @ 70kg
Every minute on the minute rocks, that's for sure. Suits for pretty much every strength movement. This time it was jerks all the way. I wanted to take the barbell from ground to make it a notch tougher and simultaneously work on my power clean with moderate weight. Beforehand 70kg seemed intimidating as I had sealed the weights in my mind already before entering the gym. However, the weight turned out to be rather light.
My 1RM is 105kg and I've regularly jerked 90kg bars up in the air. However, I thought going too heavy in the beginning might bring troubles so I stayed lower and this was emom-workout after all. Obviously I couldn't go as high if I had to complete reps every min. I'll probably redo a jerk workout later in the week and that time forget about the time and just go heavier.
This was a very good stuff for me. I felt confident and the bar path felt natural all the time. I didn't pay attention there would have been any deviations from normal lifts. I was steady, solid and tight throughout the body, from legs to core, to shoulders and elbows. Felt like I dominated the barbell.
Metcon. Time 14.29
500m row
25 push-ups
12 knees-to-elbows
How simple can it be. This was beautiful in its own nature. Row the boat, push yourself away from the floor and complete the round with some core work. Rowing was definitely the nastiest of these 3 movements. I kept the pace sub 1:50 except for the last round when I slipped to sub 1:55 pace.
Those push-ups caught my attention couple of days ago from somewhere. I realized it's such a basic movement, and I really don't do them that often. Very rarely to say the truth. Those would definitely be a good add-in at the end of a training session as a cashout, 50-100 reps for "fun".
As core movements t2b's and k2e's are great. I've been doing toes-to-bar quite a lot so I figured changing it to knees-to-elbow for a while. They were so much lighter than t2b's! That caught me by surprise. I nailed them unbroken each round. Okay, my grip strength was a little shaky towards the end but the movement itself was the easiest for me.
Good and simple workout! It took me 3-4 minutes per round to get the work done. I took the push-ups in mostly in sets of 12-7-6 except for the first round where I did them in 2 sets (18-7). Didn't want to burn my upper body in the first round. No excuses, they felt a lot tougher than they should. Even though I at least tried to keep the recovery short between sets, there must have slipped away valuable seconds. Lesson learned: do more push-ups.
Sunday. AM: 1mile sled drag, 60kg. Time 27min. PM: Benchmark workout Karen, 150 wb for time. Time 7.46.
Great weekend! Yesterday we had a family reunion, annual tradition from Pauliina's side of the family. These people are great and it's a blast hanging out with them. The event is always hosted by Pauliina's parents so we stayed at their place for the entire weekend and came back late Sunday evening. The surroundings and nature at their backyard is just a big gym in my eyes so it's difficult for me not to workout there. After breakfast we took the home made sled from the storage and it was some serious sled drag time and some playing with the pull-up bar. Later in the afternoon after fueling some food I went to my car to get wall ball and hit Karen just for fun.
Sled. Time, 27 minutes
1 mile sled drag, 60kg sled
125m downhill, 125m uphill
Credits to Pat Sherwood, host of the Crossfit Games, for posting this one on Instagram. It could not have come to a better time as we were spending the days in the countryside where we have the home-made sled, built with Kari in the springtime. Today it saw the daylight again as I decided to hit this workout. Totally different in nature to what I thought I would do with the sled. One mile of constant pulling / dragging. Today we weighted the sled for the first time, it was about 22kg, made solely from wood.
I put 38kg worth of stuff inside, a smaller kettlebell and 30kg worth of weight plates. So it ended up being 60kg. The venue was the back yard of the in-laws which is practically a city-owned park with plenty of space. I measured the distance being 125m one way and there's a slight incline on the park which made it a downhill to one way and uphill back to the starting point. One round was thus 250m. One mile equals 1.600m so it was 6 rounds + 100m.
Beforehand I thought it would be my legs that would be burning on a regular basis. And I'm not telling it wasn't so, they were definitely on a burn. What surprised me was the pain in my arms and especially elbows too. The straps came over the shoulders and I kept my hands in a tight package on my chest. Holding the straps there on a steady position for a long time caused a lot of static hold and that resulted in a misery for hands. My elbows were killing me as much as my legs.
On the first set of 100+ meters I thought this might be easier than I figured. As I turned and faced the incline for the first time my mind changed =) It was another game to work through that slight uphill. It obviously wasn't much but you don't need much when you're dragging a load behind you. On the last set I was able to jog a little 'cause the end was looming so nearby. Gave my heart to this one in the end. Awesome workout but mentally tough as you just have to walk with the sled and it feels the goal is not in sight.
Karen. Time 7.46
150 wall ball shots, 9kg
After recovering for couple of hours I was ready for another shot. I had no intention to go after Karen in the beginning. Just throw the ball in emom style. We measured the hight of the wall and marked it with a tape so I would know where the ball should hit the wall. Told Kari I would throw 20 wall balls in a minute, then rest for the remaining of the 60 seconds. Then maybe drop it to 15 reps after a while because it would obviously be tougher. At some point I realized I've done these about a 100 and at that point I reckoned Karen is close by and I went after her.
Couple of L-pull-ups for core work
I started by doing 20 reps per minute and it took me 40 seconds each time, so there was 20 seconds recovery after each set. Continued like tho for 4 rounds (=80reps). From then on I did 15's per minute and there was clearly more recovery time. It was welcomed with warmth. Took 4 more sets of 15 reps. At some stage I stopped looking at the clock because I'm about to complete my first Karen rx'd. The final set was 10 reps to reach 150 reps.
Karen was done in sandals this time. It's summer!
My shoulders were wasted after the workout and breathing was as heavy as the hot summer air. This was a good burner. There might be some time to be squeezed by shortening the recovery periods after the set of 15's. It took about 30 seconds (about 2sec per throw) so I could have started a little earlier. But it was emom workout at that point. My shoulders would definitely have been in more pain but what would have happened to the sets, that remains a mystery. Could have I kept working on sets of 15's to the end or would have I cut them in 10's or something like that.
Cashout. Wash the cars. Before that, move them to a proper spot
At this point we won't get an answer. This was my first Karen ever. Good benchmark workout! I enjoyed this weekend a lot. Thanks for Kari and Maija for hosting us and letting us stay over!
Saturday. AM: Modified version of Regionals Event 4. Metcon, 21-15-9, hspu, front squat 80kg, t2b. Time 14.29. PM: Skills, bar muscle-ups.
The Crossfit Regionals are on their way! Next weekend will be the first weekend to host Regionals in 4 different areas. They will be held over 4 different weekends from May 9th to June 1st. The Games will be held at the end of June. There's a total of 7 events in the Regionals of which none is a walk in the park. Three events on Friday, and two events on both Saturday and Sunday. I found the combination of these events very cool and challenging, and they definitely cover a wide variety of movements in the field of fitness, looks good!!!
Workout. Time 14.29
21-15-9 of:
Handstand push-ups
Front squats, 80kg
Toes-to-bar
We have to bear in mind that those guys entering Regionals are beasts, physical miracles of human beings. They've done a lot of work and they have each and everyone earned their spot in the top of each region. Thus, the workouts must also be challenging, they must really put these athletes on a real test. That's why these workouts are very challenging to a regular crossfitter like myself.
In order to succeed there's a lot of requirements for strength, high-skill gymnastics movements, speed, muscle endurance, and tolerance of pain. None of these workouts are easy. None. I applause to Dave Castro who is the man behind the crossfit competition programming. Two workouts caught my attention, events 4 & 6. These are both something I'd like to try out. Some modifications still need to be done for couple of reasons.
First, my strength level is not enough to hassle through the workouts in the sense they should be done. Having me do 45 strict push-ups with fatigued shoulders is a no go. It would take an eternity and the whole point would be wasted. My engine would not be in test, it would be mostly a test of shoulder strength.
On event 6 I don't have access to wall ball and 50 ring dips intimidate me a lot. Other than that, it looks great! Some sort of version on event 3 would also be cool, I just don't have the required skills yet to perform that many muscle-ups. And oh, I'd like to play around with a rope so much! I've been thinking about buying one. I just don't know where to work with that one…
Coming back to the workout of the day, 21-15-9 of the triplet. It was tough! On handstand push-ups I did 15 reps in a row on the first round, then 3+3 with short recovery in between. My max consecutive is 18 reps, just to give some perspective. On the second round I nailed 7 reps on first attempt, then 5+3 to finish the round. Last round was 6+3 reps. It felt like I didn't rest that much but I guess the reality is a little something different.
Uuh, and the front squats, yammy. I took the bar from ground in the beginning but then racked it as I needed the rest. There were other people at the gym and I wasn't able to drop the bar. I usually hold the bar with just two fingers when front squatting and it's difficult to re-grip when lowering the bar from front rack position. I was lucky not to drop the bar because every clean would have been nasty in that condition. First round was 10+6+5, second was 9+6 and last one 6+3. Had to rest between sets to get my legs and shoulders back in the game. It was surprisingly tough on the shoulders too, to have the bar in front rack.
Toes-to-bar was obviously the easiest of these. I went unbroken on these ones and didn't have any issues whatsoever on this movement. Had one no-rep in the last set as my toes didn't touch the bar simultaneously so I did one "extra" rep.
This gave me some perspective on the feelings over the Regionals. This was much lighter version of event 4, and having to do 2-3 workouts per day of which each is cruel and a mind-blowing test of fitness. I look up to these guys and appreciate the work they go through in just a few days.
Skills.
Bar muscle-up progressions
Bar muscle-ups
I went for a recovery run to flush my legs that felt quite stiff after yesterday's squats and today's workout which also included lots of front squats. I ran / jogged / walked around for couple of kilometers and ended up at my "hidden pull-up" place =) I wanted to work on this gymnastics skill because I tend to land over the pull-up bar with my right side first so it's unbalanced. That's not a good thing and needs to be corrected.
I have hard time training this at the gym because the wall is too close and I need rather big kip to get those muscle-ups done. So I'll try to find a pull-up bar outdoors to work on this one until my skills are so good that I can complete this with smaller kip or even strict.
There was a horse competition going on nearby
I started by doing couple of pull-ups, then chest-to-bars, little by little pulling myself higher until the reps were more like belly-to-bar. Then I remembered how to do bar muscle-ups theoretically correctly. Hold the feet together, swing forward, and once you swing back bring knees to the chest and kip as fiercely as possible. Or something like that =) The point being that I haven't kept my feet together and only my right leg has done some sort of kipping movement. It hasn't been my entire hip that has worked properly. I've mostly pulled myself up there and it hasn't been beautiful.
Bar muscle-up recap
I've learned how to do these without misses but it hasn't been as economical as I'd like to. Today I understood big things and was able to get first muscle-ups ever with proper style. Even though I've done tens and couple of hundreds of those today was the day I got my first "beautiful" rep. That was a big thing!
Also did some t2b's and k2e's after mucsle-ups. During my recovery run I also ended up in Eltsu where I decided to try some handstand walk because the track just looked so attempting. It felt good on my shoulders and I'm sure it would have made a success story. However, my legs and back were cramping from the very beginning. I tried couple of times but then called it quits and ran back home to eat =)
We had plans of hittimg the gyl for heavy back squats and a metcon but then again the weather was beautiful and as Pauliina suggested to go outdoors I was instantly down with that idea. In the morning I did a metcon at backyard and then we drove to Klaukkala where I completed another metcon.
Metcon.
15min amrap of:
Run 200m
20 kettlebell swing, 32kg
10 knees-to-elbows
This was fun. Enjoyed working outdoors tremendously, sun was shining, it was bright sky and spring is obviously on its way! Most challenging thing was that my forearms were killing me. I intentionally wrote 20 kb swings at 2 pood weight to put pressure on my grip strength.
I ran back and forth at our backyard for 2x100m, then completed 20 swings and finished a round with 10 knees-to-elbows. As there's no pull-up bar nearby I had to improvise. There's children's swing which goes perfectly as a pull-up bar. It was cool to have running element involved, I gladly take one if there's a possibility for that.
Kettlebell swings were toughest. After 3 rounds it was challenging to go unbroken and I had to decide it mentally that I'm not gonna drop the bell. It was painful from about 12 reps on. But I knew dropping the bell would waste time so I kept going. I'm very happy about being able to unbroken with the kb's.
K2e's were just part of the metcon. Wasn't bad. Just 10 reps so it was supposed to be ub as well. Breathing was heavy as usual. When I was running I tried to shake off the tension in my forearms. It got worse by the round. After the workout I couldn't squeeze my fingers together for a while :)
In-laws had cut a big pine tree in smaller pieces and saved some logs for me to handle a workout. Naturally I wanted to take advantage of that stuff. It's awesome to do any sort of metcons outdoors. I'm ready, no matter the weather. But the weather was still beautiful, sun was about to set.
I took 2 smaller logs and carried them for about 100m, went around a tree at about 50m distance and back. After log carry - which made my heart beat greatly - it was time to dp kb snatches. I didn't carry my own bell with me but luckily my old 20kg bell is nowadays located here at the in-laws. The weight was pretty good for snatches.
It was pretty cool to do the workout while the sun was going to sleep at the same time.
Both workouts were awesome! I updated this post with a load of photos and a video of the first workout of the day.
Sunday. Back squats 3x4 across @ 130kg. Metcon, 15min amrap: 1 dead (150kg), 6 hspu, 9 k2e, 12 box. Result. 8rds + 1 dead. Total 225 reps.
Once again, another great training day! I'm getting to my comfort zone on heavy back squats and there is clear development in leg strength. That pleases me a lot. I also took a metcon which had an interesting twist as I mixed a heavy barbell with bodyweight movements. Definitely worth taking another shot in some way.
Strength. Squats
Back squats 4-4-4 across @ 130kg
This was part of my recent squat program. Traditionally my programming is very much freestyling. I usually have a thing in my mind to which I want to concentrated and put more focus on but other than that I don't usually make long-term plans on my strength training. I feel like that's far away from the original plan of being prepared for anything and having constant variety in training.
Anyway, I did 10x2 some time ago of which last 7 sets were with 130kg. Last Sunday I did 5 sets of triples, all sets @ 130kg. So my plan was to hit 3 sets of 130kg for 4 reps in each set. Little by little I increased the number of reps per set. And I got all sets done in all 3 heavy squat days. I call that a success. Let's see if I'll go for 135kg next time. Have to think about this one for a while. Whatever it turns out, I have gained a good level of confidence on back squats.
I took sets with 60, 80, 100 and 120kg before reaching the 130kg weight on the barbell. And it felt good squatting! All sets done. It was heavy and got heavier towards the end. No surprise there. Anyway, I was sure to bring it home after having done the first set. Never have I done sets this many sets with 4 reps or more at these weights. It's been an awesome trip to get to this point. I feel like my legs have become stronger and these squat days have proved it to me.
Recap of squats
Metcon. Result 225 reps (8 rounds + 1 deadlift)
15min amrap of:
1 deadlift, 150kg
6 handstand push-ups
9 knees-to-elbows
12 box jumps, 61cm
Yeah, I had thought about doing an amrap of 5hspu, 10k2e and 15 box but yesterday evening I got a sudden feeling of adding a heavy deadlift with the bodyweight movements. And I'm glad I got the sign from somewhere. It was a different nature as I had to grab that heavy barbell for a single rep every once in a while.
I completed everything on this workout unbroken. Deadlift was naturally the heaviest movement. I got to 8 full rounds plus 1 deadlift on the 9th round. That makes me happy as I now think about the number of hspu's I completed, total of 48 reps. And they were easy! It's a totally different situation compared to last summer when I remember having lots of frustration with the movement. Work on weaknesses… Nowadays I love the movement and I feel comfortable with them.
Knees-to-elbows is a movement I've neglected for a while. If I've done some sort of core work, it has more likely been toes-to-bar. It was a good variation to take k2e's instead. Went unbroken and smooth.
Because of box jumps I had to change my shoes from oly shoes to my normal workout sneakers. It would have been awesome to nail those deadlifts with olympic lifting shoes but it would have been awkward to do box jumps with them. Of course you can do single box jumps with them but touch'n'go box jumps are more difficult with a flat shoe. I liked the box jumps too and was able to do them even though my breathing got heavy and legs were burning.
It was a steady work throughout the 15 minutes. It was around 2:00 for couple of rounds but for the last 3 rounds I was able to catch up some time and each round was a little faster than the previous, at about 1:50. I may have given some slack in the beginning because I thought this workout would destroy me earlier. It was a nice surprise to being able to keep moving with a steady pace.
Good workouts, both of them, first back squats for strength and then an amrap training. And hey, congrats to Toni who nailed a personal record of 100kg clean today!!!
