Sunday 31.7: Mu, Deads, Oh lunges

Sunday. Skills, emom x 6min: ring mu's. Deads 5x10 @ 130kg (no tng allowed). Accessory, oh double kb lunges @ 2x16kg, 4 x 18m.

For too long has it been break since pulling from the ground. First I had my payback on the rings as last time I did those at CF Kehä, I got none which was mind blowing. Those long straps got to me somehow. Today it was important to get some done. THen longer sets of pulling and finally some accessory play.

Skills.

• Every minute on the minute x 6 minutes
• 1-3 reps per minute

Yeah, it was a great feeling to get myself over the rings again. Took a triple in the beginning, then doubles and singles on the remaining minutes. My left hand almost tore up so I left it at just couple of minutes. This was a good one to restore confidence.

Pulls.

• Deadlift 5x10 reps @ 130kg
• No bounce allowed at the floor, no adjust of the grip

Different type of pulls. Usually I go touch'n'go all the way and the barbell is a lot lighter once I have got one rep completed. The following reps are relatively easier for me. Usually the only restricting element is how much my fingers and palms are ready to take the hit. Not so much the back and hamstrings. Kind of funny but that's how it is.

So this time I worked on the starting position and got to say it burned the entire posterior chain much more than normally. Really liked that one. I can nail 3x190kg or 5x180kg touch'n'go and those are not that bad but doing 10x130kg with a dead stop on the floor feels more in my back and hammies. Hands took these well too as the bar was only at 130kg.

Accessory.

• Double kettlebell overhead walking lunges
• 4 x 18m sets, rest as needed between sets

This was a bit shorter session so there wasn't time to attack a metcon with rage. I went after this right after the deadlifts. These were the heaviest kettlebells I found at the same weight. Last time I did 2x16kg upstairs but it was for 10 meters. Now it was about double so I figured the weight might work alright. First one was easy, the following were heavier. Shoulders on the second one, shoulders and legs on the last two sets.

Friday 15.7: Ohs, Bar Mu, Box

Friday. Ohs 7x3 @ 60kg. Emom x 10min: odd min 5 bar mu, even min 15 box jumps.

Haven't done overhead squats in a while. My wrists usually don't like it that much. It's probably due to the wider grip. It feels difficult to go heavy on this movement because of that. After ohs I worked on some skills and box jumps.

Oly.

• Overhead squats 7x3 @ 60kg

Towards the end I narrowed my grip and it felt better and better with each set. Before I haven't found it possible to go this narrow. My shoulder mobility has prevented it. For some reason it was much better today. It felt better in pretty much everywhere to go narrower. Got to try it out in the future as well. Stayed conservative on the weights as I wrote because of the wrists. They are fine normally but this is the only movement which feels awkward in there.

Workout.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Odd minutes, 5 bar muscle-ups
• Even minutes, 15 box jumps (max reps on the last minute: 32 reps)

Muscle-ups needed to be done. There was no doubt about it. Just need to throw something in the mix so it wouldn't be just mu's. Emom wod seemed like a great idea, and it was. Five bar muscle-ups every other minute and then box jumps every other minute. On the last minute I did some more boxes than on the previous rounds.

Friday 24.6: Gymnastics, Sled

Friday. Skills, muscle-ups. Wod, 15min amrap: 20m sled pull, standing @ 80kg, 20m sled push @ 110kg.

Finns have been celebrating Midsummer this weekend. The sun will never go down during the night and it's light all day. Usually people go to their summer cottages and celebrate this festivity with friends or family, grill some food and enjoy their time. We went to Klaukkala but in the morning I went to the gym to do strongman style workout. It's a bummer that I videotaped the workouts but accidentally deleted everything from my camera during the weekend =)

Gymnastics.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• 2 muscle-ups

Metcon. Result, 8 rounds + 10m sled pull

• 15min amrap of:
• 20m sled pull, standing @ 80kg
• 20m sled push @ 110kg

Wednesday 15.6: Mu, Lunges, Kb, Row

Wednesday. Metcon, 5rds of: 3 mu + 50 lunges. Metcon, 5rds of: 12 kb swing + 250m row. Time, 7.54.

I realized on my way to the gym that I had zero plans of what to practice today. That was kind of odd but "luckily" the traffic was jammed and I had plenty of time to think about the workouts. First one was more skills based and the second one was a great conditioning piece.

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 3 ring muscle-ups
• 50 walking lunges

It struck me suddenly that muscle-ups need to be performed today. I looked at my hands and they looked alright. Ready for action. Without that much warm-up I jumped on the rings and started moving. Mental pre-game was on point today and it helped tremendously with the muscle-ups.

Took one set of mu's, and went lunging for 50 reps. Repeated this for a total of 5 sets. It was a very positive thing that the rings felt great today. Those sets didn't feel like they would be any kind of issue at all. The video below is the last set.

Metcon. Time, 7.54

• 5 rounds of:
• 12 kettlebell swings @ 32kg
• 250m row

This was more intense. Kept the transitions as short as possible all the time. It's important to take the first pull on the rower right away and not hang around to adjust the foot handles before that. There's plenty of time to adjust those after you get the "boat" moving.

Kettlebell was 2 pood version and I programmed it at 12 reps in order for me being able to grab it right after the rower. Had it been 15-20 swings I would have taken a short break before swinging it.

Saturday 4.6: Amanda, Clean triples

Saturday. Benchmark workout Amanda. Time, 15.20. Squat clean triples, build up to a heavy set (100kg).

This day was remarkable in my crossfit career. First time being able to do benchmark workout Amanda rx'd. Wasn't pretty to be honest but was able to do it anyway with real weights. Afterwards I went to build to to a heavy set of squat clean triple.

Amanda. Time, 15.20. Compare to 1.5.2015

• 9-7-5 of:
• Ring muscle-ups
• Snatch @ 60kg

I've done this once before with 40kg barbell. It's a totally different game to add 20 kilos on the barbell. Ring muscle-ups went pretty nicely today. For no reason it's been some time since hopping on the rings. It was cool to see I still got it. Had to break them obviously in several sets during the workout.

In the warm-up I took one rep at 60kg snatch, then started the clock on Amanda. The feeling after having 9 muscle-ups fatigue shoulders a bit and then trying to stabilize the barbell overhead in the bottom position was unreal. Hard to even describe how it felt but it simply felt unnatural. I lost the first one in front, and the second attempt went too far back. By the way, that was the first snatch that went through in my life. They always stay in front if I miss them.

Third attempt was caught but it looked ugly as hell. Same with the fourth. Then little by little I started to get it under control. Last reps on the round of 9's were decent. Rounds of 7's and 5's were already smoother. It felt better and better in the course of the workout. It was almost a pity the workout ended. I liked the snatch part towards the end.

I'm very happy I was able to complete this workout. It's been in the back of my head that some day I want to complete it rx'd. These are written to be squat snatches and some of them definitely were not but I'll take it anyway. 60kg snatch is not self-evident for me, especially in a metcon. Sometimes in a snatch session it feels heavy so doing 21 reps of those in metcon is great.

Oly.

• Build up to a heavy set of squat clean triple
• Sets at 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100kg

It was different to do these sets after metcon. Usually I do strength and barbell cycling before and then hit a workout afterwards. It was a good change in methodology. These weren't the lightest of cleans I've done but still they rolled quite okay.

Doing them touch'n'go style is more taxing than 3 x quick singles so I'm happy with this. On the last rep of the 100kg set I lost the tightness in my body so had to reset the bar and take the last rep as a single.

Friday 15.4: Row, Run, Burpees, Mu's

Friday. Back squat, up to 3x140kg. Metcon, 5rds of: 300m row, 200m shuttle run, 10 burpees. Time, 14.07. Skills, 5x5 bar mu's.

Late evening workout. My body was definitely very tired due to not having enough recovery the entire week. Don't know if it was the best idea to go to the gym. Afterwards I was pleased though.

Strength.

• Back squat 5x90, 3x110, 1x120, 1x130, 3x140, 2x138kg

This was absolutely a disappointment when working out as I didn't hit the numbers I was looking for. On the other hand I feel it's okay that I can hit a triple @ 140kg even on a very crappy day.

Metcon. Time, 14.07

• 5 rounds of:
• 300m row
• 200m shuttle run (10x20m)
• 10 burpees

This was a good one, and my round times were consistent. The rounds varied in just seconds, it was somewhere at 2:50 per round. Rowing was maybe 1:45 pace, no idea about the run but it took a little more than the row. That turn after every 20 meters caused that. Burpees went smoothly

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups 5x5

It was great to get some skills action also in the books. Got these nicely, some reps were tough on these sets but mostly it was alright

Sunday 10.4: CF Open 14.4, Strongman

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.

Strongman / Skills

Thursday 7.4: Squats, Bar mu, Lunges

Thursday. Back squats 5x5 @ 135kg. Accessory, 5rds of: 5 bar mu, 12 reverse lunges @ 50kg

Getting heavier and heavier on the squats. Another grind day by having a barbell on my back. Then skills and more leg burn afterwards. Didn't time that one at all. It was more like accessory work even though the recovery time wasn't too long.

Strength.

• Back squats 5x5 @ 135kg

Last days of this progression that I wrote by myself. It's been 5's all the way. Different amount of sets every time but the main point is that I'll keep adding weights on the bar and keep the volume up. It's been mentally tough at times and especially the last couple of squat sessions have built a lot of personality so to say. These sets were challenging sets but I managed to finish them, very happy!

Accessory.

• 5 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 12 reverse lunges @ 50kg

This was not a timed workout. I did the muscle-ups and immediately walked to the bar, back racked it and took 12 reverse lunges. Then sat down for a while, went back to chalk my hands and hit another set. It was great to get muscle-ups done, it was simply awesome. I had a miss on the third round. Then got my head around the game again and finished the following repetitions smoothly.

Lunges burned my legs more than I anticipated in the beginning. Last reps of each set were heavy but I refused to pause at any moment. The bar was rather light anyway so I decided to push forward.

Friday 25.3: Block snatches and bar mu's

Friday. Snatch from the blocks (up to 3x55kg). Skills, bar mu's.

On Friday we were on our way to Klaukkala to spend the Easter with Pauliina's parents. Toni invited us to hit it at his Box. We worked on our snatch technique and then some bar muscle-ups in the end. This was rather quick session.

Oly.

• Snatch from blocks
• 5x30, 40, 45kg
• 4x50kg
• 3x55kg

The height of the blocks was about just below knees. This is probably very beneficial to me especially as the tendency is I'm not pulling the bar high enough with patience. By focusing on pulling at this level it was easier to go after this deficiency. I'm pretty happy on the snatches on Friday. Not quite sure how many sets I took but at least the above mentioned were done. Probably some more.

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups

This just came on my mind for a cashout. Some fooling around. Tried different versions on this skills. Basically I was trying to learn how to kip because my mu's are more or less "strict". I don't mean that in a positive sense. I have troubles in utilizing a proper back swing. I just drop down and pull myself back again. The below video was my first set. After that I took some more and tried to force a better back swing.

Friday 16.3: CF Open 16.3

Friday. CF Open 16.3. 7min amrap of: 10 power snatch @ 35kg, 3 bar mu's. Result, 71 reps.

It was freaking great to have a chance to workout at Toni's new affiliate. This was the second time I went there. The place is the coolest crossfit box I have ever seen. We were supposed to hit this newest crossfit open workout together they released last night. Looked like a nice workout as each and every one of them have looked like this far. Toni was busy running last minute errands for tomorrow's introduction class at the box.

CF Open 16.3. Result, 71 reps (5 rounds + 6 snatch)

• 7 minute amrap of:
• 10 power snatch @ 35kg
• 3 bar muscle-ups

This looked a bit intimidating as neither of the elements were too difficult / challenging. But the clock is the frightening factor here. It's quite a short one so you shouldn't have excuses for taking breaks. On the other hand, it was a no-brainer that this is going to murder forearms. I said that the minute I saw this workout was released and that was exactly the thing, at least in my case. Jumped on this without warm-up as both elements are light anyway and I only had a limited time to hang around.

Doing sets of 10 reps with light snatches is deceptive as it's easy in the beginning and round by round it gets more painful. I did both elements unbroken as I figured it's time consuming to start picking the barbell up again or being ready to jump up to the pull-up rig again. I believe it was a good choice. Don't know what would have happened if I cut the recovery times in the transitions. That would have most definitely brought issues on being able to go unbroken.

Saturday 5.3: Mu's, Snatch, Cleans

Saturday. Skills, mu's and burpees. Emom x 10: snatch (mostly 50kg). Emom x 12min: power clean (up to 95kg)

Saturday wasn't the most glorious of days as I attended grandpa's funeral. It was couple hours drive away so it was a road trip ahead with my bro. Emotional day for sure. It was a warm-hearted family gathering for sure. Anyway, I needed to get to the gym early in the morning to get my mind on something else.

Saturday's set-up

Skills.

• 10 ring muscle-ups
• 30 burpees

Hands were pretty sore which made gripping basically anything awkward but I wanted to get some muscle-up action done. The big take away was that I got to finally take the mu training on video and analyze it on the technique. I found out that my gut feeling of getting the back swing a lot better is true. It's been poor in the history but now it's much more fierce. I'm very pleased on that! Another key issue is keeping the legs together, another win.

What I'd like to see get done in the future better is that my body would create a more hollow body position and not that many angles. That would create a good tension in the body and elevate the body over the rings more easily. This concerns the swing on both back and front positions. Finished these ring muscle-ups with 30 burpees in a row to get heart rate up.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Snatch (mostly 50kg)

Light weight. Definitely felt a morning training. Body was stiff all the way and really didn't get loosened up at any moment of the session. I took 40kg and 45kg reps in the beginning, then finished with 50kg singles to the end. First snatches at 50kg fell forward which made me correct the position with footing when coming up. I consider those pretty much a failed lift. Towards the end I got the bar path corrected and those felt alright. Then on the video I realized they were power snatches even though I thought I was sitting below parallel. That morning stiffness shows there =)

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 12 minutes
• Power clean (80, 80, 80, 85, 85, 85, 90, 90, 90, 95, 95, 95kg)

Had some extra time so I loaded the bar up to 80kg and took some singles. First at every 30 seconds, then from 85kg on it was singles every 60 seconds. Was supposed to end at 90kg but I decided to add it to 95kg anyway. Those were not the cutest ones but the rest of these power cleans were about on point.

Sunday 28.2: Skills workout, Strongman

Sunday. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 5 bar mu, 20m walking lunges (40kg). Result, 167 reps. Accessory, every 3:00, for 24min, alternating between: 20m sled push (165kg), 40m farmer's walk (115-125kg).

Strongman Sunday mixed with skills. That was the goal for today. My hands have healed pretty well from last muscle-up session and luckily they held on well today on those bar mu's too. Hitting a skills workout in the beginning, and then strongman elements in the latter piece.

Metcon.

• 15min amrap of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 20m walking lunges, 40kg, back rack

These are both excellent movements. The barbell was light for back rack lunges. That was no surprise but the main ingredient of this workout was definitely the muscle-ups. Lunges paired up greatly. I was able to do the lunges unbroken, and would not have accepted it in any other way. They still got me breathing heavier and burned legs on the last meters for sure. They also gave my upper body that much needed rest between muscle-up sets.

I'm very happy on the performance on the pull-up bar. It was 5's all the way, unbroken each set, c'mon! Got through 7 sets of muscle-ups finally. It was only 8m short of full 7 rounds for result in the 15 minute time frame. Mu's got challenging somewhere in the middle of the workout. Okay, they were not a walk in the park at any point but still I was confident throughout the metcon.

Accessory.

• Every 3:00, for 24 minutes
• Alternating between:
• 20m sled push @ 160kg (+sled)
• 40m farmer's walk @ 115-125kg (2 sets @ 115kg, 2 sets @ 125kg)

This was a good call. Had both elements in my notes but hadn't closed how to chase them. Decided to go heavy and alternate between these two every 3 minutes. Didn't do any movement specific warm-ups. Instead, just piled the plates on each other and started to move the sled. The weight on the first leg of the sled came as a surprise. It weighed a ton. But I got it moving and continued to keep the legs churning.

Bought parallettes today, boom!

Farmer's walk was the "easier" part of these two. Maybe only because I'm more familiar with it. For the first two sets the cases were loaded with 2x20kg plates. Then for the latter sets I added 2.5kg on each end.

My body really felt this one hours after it was done. Somehow my quads were shaking and felt weak afterwards. That made me smile inside. The work was definitely put in. Got to keep these elements in the program in the future too. I'm positive these are giving a positive effect on overall fitness.

Saturday 20.2: Nasty Girls + Db's

Saturday. AM. Nasty Girls. Time, 13.16 (PR). Cashout, 3rds of: 1min row, 1min bike. PM. 5rds of: 12 lunges (2x25kg db's), 10 front squat (2x25kg db's). Accessory, 4x15 bent over row (2x25kg db's).

We spent the weekend in the countryside so I didn't have possibility to write about Saturday's training sessions. It was a two-a-day. In the morning we hit it with Pauliina. There was a benchmark workout called Nasty Girls. In the evening we went outside with Kari for another session. Awesome Saturday!

Nasty Girls. Time, 13.16 (PR)

• 3 rounds of:
• 50 air squats
• 7 ring muscle-ups
• 10 hang power cleans @ 60kg

This was the second time I've done this benchmark workout. These muscle-up wods are always a bit horrifying in advance. Those are not my strength and they tore my palms big time each and every time. There probably hasn't been even one session without rips. Okay that may be exaggeration but it's close anyway.

But the fact is that today's muscle-ups rocked my world. I was proud of myself in the middle of the workout. On the first round my plan was to go 4-3 reps which was a bit optimistic. However, as I started to do them my focus was on keeping a hollow body, tightly together, with a good back swing and lots of patience on the front swing before pulling myself up and over the rings. These must have been one of the best (if not even the best) muscle-ups I have performed. It's a pity I don't have video material as I'd really like to analyze that.

So first round was 4-3 even though it felt like I had something in me to go even unbroken. That would have been a pr so that would have probably been the most stupid thing to do in a workout like this =) Once mu's are gone, it's difficult to get them back. Second round was 3-2-2 and the last one maybe a double or two and then singles. Still the technique was good on these ones all the way.

Air squats were unbroken on the first round, and then I kept a short pause after 30 reps on latter rounds. Cleans were unbroken each round, those were the easiest part of this workout.

Cashout.

• 3 rounds of:
• 1min row
• 1min bike

This might be quite an awesome workout to continue for 20-40 minutes. At least something similar. Don't have a SkiErg which would make it even better. This time there was no time to work more on this couplet.

Legs.

• 5 rounds of:
• 12 walking lunges @ 2x25 dumbbells
• 10 front squats @ 2x25kg dumbbells

I had bought 25kg dumbbells from Germany and this was the first time I got my hands on them. Those little babies were great! And the weather was perfect too so the combination was simply just too good not to hit another session. This focused purely on those db's.

My legs were on fire. Doing this on snow made it interesting as I slipped every now and then as the snow started to pack and turn firm. That made it slippery as ice. This was not a timed wod.

Accessory.

• 4 x 15 bent over row @ 2x25kg dumbbells

Just needed to get something else done with these guys. Bent over rows don't appear very often in my training but it's still a good movement. Today I decided to give it a shot as Pauliina suggested it =) Had to take them for 15 reps as the weight was not heavy for that purpose. I did these with two dumbbells at the same time

Saturday 13.2: Mu's, Wb, Jerk, Farmer's walk

Saturday. Metcon, 4rds of: 4 bar mu, 20 wb. Time, 5.24. Push jerk triples from blocks (up to 85kg). Farmer's walk 2x20m (up to 135kg).

Huh I was waiting this session like a little kid. Reason: yesterday was a day off. We went outdoors for a dinner and quality time with family. Today I had decided to take the first step towards the newly acquired Rogue jerk blocks. Respect to the gym owner who finally got these bad boys! This place is great.

Metcon.

• 4 rounds of:
• 4 bar muscle-ups
• 20 wall ball

Session started with a skills related conditioning piece. I went back and forth in my head between ring and bar muscle-ups and finally ended up with bar mu's. It's been an eternity since doing mu's last time so it was about time to throw down.

Nice combo. Shoulders were burning pretty well. I still battle with the feeling of how much to gas in metcons including muscle-ups. I'm kinda afraid of hitting the wall on those so I hold back a bit throughout the wod. In this one I felt like I kept good breaks between wall balls and mu's but then again  afterwards it was like I could have gone faster. Or with shorter breaks.

Overhead.

• Push jerk triples from jerk blocks (60, 70, 80, 83, 85, 85, 85kg)

Like a dream come true. This is an understatement though. I've seen dreams of these since day one when I started crossfit. My clean is way stronger than my jerk so this is a tool to work on my overhead strength and technique with heavier weights. It's a different thing to lower the barbell on front rack position compared to this where you can drop it on the blocks and tie another shot at it.

I basically didn't have any plans as this was a totally new thing for me. Took a set at 60kg, then 70kg, and just built up by feeling. Finally there were 3 sets of triples at 85kg. Only afterwards I realized that was definitely the heaviest push jerks I have done in my life. 85kg as a single is PR for me and today I did 9 reps at that weight. Split jerk is over 100kg but push jerk's limits have been at this point. I guess something good has happened even though heavy barbells have not been over my head in a month. Felt super happy on this part!

Strength.

• Farmer's walk 2x20m (105, 115, 125, 125, 135kg)

Lately I've learned to respect this movement big time. The matt is 20 meters long so I grabbed the handles and went one way, dropped them down, and came back after a little breath taking session. This is definitely an entire body element that requires you to fully engage the entire body. That also results in developing every piece of this body.

This strongman stuff is great. I'm planning to add this to my program on a weekly routine. At least some strongman piece for sure, variance is the key to everything. Pretty obvious stuff. This was the heaviest I have done this far. It started to get on my grip strength in the last round.

Sunday 10.1: Mu's, Press, Emom

Sunday. Emom x 10min: mu's 2-3 reps. Push press 1x6 @ 78kg. Emom x 15min: 1st 5 c&j @ 60kg, 2nd 8-10 burpee box, 3rd 12 pull-ups.

The past two days have been pretty awesome in the field of crossfit. After couple of easier days I've got a chance to hit it at the gym for real. Both of these days have been very efficient. Yesterday the session took me 43 minutes in total after warm-up. Today it was 42 minutes. Somehow after this kind of intense sessions I leave the gym with a happy face as it feels like things happened efficiently. Not that I would like to spend the entire day at the gym if it was possible =)

Gymnastics.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Muscle-ups, 2-3 reps per minute
• Total of: 24 reps

Damned it was fun to go after muscle-ups! It's been a while since doing these last time. It's always a bit of a nervous situation to walk to the rings and start working. It wouldn't if I mastered them but that's not the case. I was a bit conservative in the beginning and took doubles. Actually the first was a triple but then couple of doubles before finishing it with triples again. I counted a total of 24 reps which makes it 4 triples and 6 doubles. Felt good on these. Obviously I ripped my left palm as the tendency seems to be on mu's.

Overhead.

• Push press 1x6 @ 78kg

This is the part of the progression I've been doing the past 6 weeks to put some beef on my shoulders. Started warming up with an empty barbell right after muscle-ups. Little by little crawled up to 80kg for a single. Then dropped to 78kg for a max set. It says 6 reps but there was a permission to go further. It was a good battle to complete the 7th rep too. See the video for that set.

Recap

Conditioning.

• Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
• 1st minute: 5 clean and jerk @ 60kg
• 2nd minute: 8-10 burpee box jumps
• 3rd minute: 12 pull-ups

Some emom rotation on couple of elements. Those clean and jerks were a great piece of this workout. It would definitely be beneficial to mix c&j's in workouts more often. They are a great way to cause fatigue on entire body.

 I changed between 8 to 10 reps on the burpee box jumps, and 12 pull-ups on the third minute. I actually started at 10 pull-ups, changed it on the second round and finished the last round with 14 reps.

Wednesday 30.12: Oly technique, long metcon + Bench

Wednesday. AM. Technique, clean / snatch. Metcon, 3rds of: 5 bar mu, 10 clean (60kg), 15 burpee, 20 kb swing (24kg), 25 ghd, 30 du, 400m row. PM. Bench 5x3 @ 90kg.

Went to the gym early in the morning. As I anticipated my legs were smoked. Did some technique work in the beginning and then a longer metcon with modest pacing. In the afternoon only bench presses, short session.

Yeah, messy notes but it reminded me what to do next in the metcon =)

Oly.

• Clean
• Snatch

There were barely weight on the barbell. It was either an empty or 40kg barbell all the way. This was mostly concentrating on pause cleans at different phases of the bar path. I believe there is something to this drill that might make a big difference in the long run. Probably the most significant thing with which I have got gains on the snatch technique has been to cut the movement in pieces and do high pulls too.

Metcon.

• 3 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 10 power cleans, 60kg
• 15 burpees
• 20 kettlebell swings, 24kg
• 25 ghd sit-ups
• 30 double unders
• 400m row

Long workout. It took something like 8-9 minutes per round to complete. In the first round my body didn't react too well for the muscle-ups. Those felt heavier than normally. On the second and third round I got them rocking much better.

Power cleans were quick singles in every round. Very smooth in my opinion. However, they got me breathing heavily, especially after jumping right on to 15 burpees. That was a nice combination. I paced myself on those, didn't rush at all but kept the body moving all the time.

Swings were unbroken, the weight was only 24kg so that was kind of no-brainer. Ghd's were quite easy. Yesterday I found out that the happiness to good double unders is to foam roll shins before the jump rope action. Today I did the same trick and du's worked well. Had one miss in one of the sets but I'm very happy on the du's!

Rowing was modest pace all the way. Also the transitions were not the fastest. The purpose of this workout was to keep heart rate under control from the very beginning. Good workout.

Strength.

• Bench press 5x3 @ 90kg (first set 5 reps)

After eating twice and sleeping in between I went to the gym again to do bench for strength. After a lengthy warm-up I climbed up to 90kg at which I did 5 sets. The first was 5 reps, the rest were triples. All across @ 90 kilos.

Monday 28.12: Pull-ups, Hspu, Clean, T2b + MU's metcon

Monday. AM. Bodyweight emom x 20min. Odd min, 10 pull-ups. Even min, 10 hspu. Emom x 10min. Odd min, 3 squat clean (80kg). Even min, 12 t2b. PM. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 2 mu's, 6 push jerk (60kg), 14 box. Result, 162 reps.

It was an early morning workout to kickstart the day. As I'm on a holiday right now my program looks pretty similar each day. I drive my lovely wife to work, then head to the gym right after that at 9.00 in the morning at latest. Then a good warm-up takes place and about 2h session is ahead of me. There's no rush at all. At 11.00 I go back home, eat, relax and take a nap. That's a life changer. I feel alive again after sleeping for a while. Then another session in the afternoon and then get Pauliina back home. Then more food inside of me and recovery for the next day in the best company.

Bodyweight.

• Every minute on the minute x 20 minutes
• Odd min, 10 pull-ups
• Even min, 10 handstand pull-ups

I needed a lot of warm-up to get to this point that I was able to move my body properly. Felt very stiff in the morning. Did rowing for 1k and mobilized a lot, played around with a light barbell for a while before hopping on the pull-up bar.

This was supposed to be a 10 minute emom workout but once I started moving my body woke up nicely and both pull-ups and handstand push-ups started feeling good. It felt only suitable to keep on going and it turned out to be a 20min workout in the end. Pull-ups were too easy. That was a very positive thing now as I think about it.

Hspu's got tougher through the end. Last 2-3 sets were clearly heavier. I'm still very happy on that I was able to complete 100 reps of both pull-ups and hspu's. On pull-ups that's a good volume but for the handstand push-ups it's huge. No matter in what kind of sets it's being done, 100 hspu's is a lot for me.

Oly / Core.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Odd min, 3 squat clean @ 80kg
• Even min, 12 toes-to-bar

There was quite a proper time of recovery between the emoms. Had to make sure my body's ready for the second piece. Considering my legs were done already when I woke up today I didn't know how they would react on the cleans. Taking that into consideration this felt great. Went down in 3 x singles each minute. Not an actual break in between. Just dropped the bar and took it up again.

T2b's were surprisingly hard. Well there wasn't a chance I wouldn't do them unbroken but going for maybe additional 2 rounds it would have probably got challenging. Had to adjust my grip and core was also feeling it. Good workout.

Some accessory work in the rmoning. Bicep curls 5x10 reps

Metcon. Result, 162 reps (7 rounds + 6 jerk)

• 15min amrap of:
• 2 ring muscle-ups
• 6 push jerks @ 60kg
• 14 box jumps

After nap time this was ahead of me. Wanted to have muscle-ups in the game. I thought about what's going to match nicely with this movement. Needed to have some barbell movement. Squats were out of question because my legs are so sore. Shoulder-to-overhead's seemed like a good idea, and they were. Box jumps sealed the deal.

This went very well. In the warm-up jerks felt heavy but then I stopped listening to my head and put the timer on. This weight is not super heavy for sure. Went unbroken on the muscle-ups. That was my goal, and the reasoning behind writing only 2 reps per round. Had I put 3 reps per round they most likely would not have been ub all the way. Actually jerks and box jumps were unbroken too. Just as planned.

Round times were consistent. About 2 minutes per round. First one was 90 seconds, the rest of them about 120 seconds. I finished the 7th round at 11.59, and got enough time to still go after muscle-ups and jerks. As I dropped the barbell overhead clock turned 15:00.

Saturday 19.12: Winter War Event 3

Saturday. Winter War, Event 3. Result, 142 reps

Saturday's training session was an easier one. Only one metcon. My back felt as stiff as it could be after those heavier deadlifts on Friday. Even though they felt good when I did them, the following days are often the moments when I feel like something had been pulled from the ground. Another reason for taking it easier was schedule. We were going to celebrate one family member's 70 year birthday party. It was a blast, these people are great!

Winter War, Event 3. Result, 142 reps

• 10min amrap of:
• 20 cal row
• 15 wall ball
• 10 box jump overs
• 2/4/6/8… muscle-ups, ascending ladder

Winter War is a throwdown which aims to find the fittest in Finland. There are a total of 4 qualification events of which the 32 fittest will be called to the competition in February. The events are:

Event 1.

• 8min amrap:
• 10 thruster, 50kg
• 10 thruster, 60kg
• 10 thruster, 70kg
• 10 thruster, 80kg…

Event 2.

• 4min amrap:
• 1 chest-to-bar pull-up
• 1 toes-to-bar

Event 3.

• 10min amrap of:
• 20 cal row
• 15 wall ball
• 10 box jump overs
• 2/4/6/8… muscle-ups, ascending ladder

Event 4. "Barbell Hell"

• 50 deadlift, 60kg
• 50 bar over hops
• 50 hand power clean, 60kg
• 50 bar over hops
• 50 front squat, 60kg
• 50 bar over hops
• 50 shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg

I did that first one some time ago. It was a repeat workout from 3 years ago. The only difference was that it started at 40kg then, and I went after the 2012 version. Now it was time for that third event. It looked like a nice one with some muscle-ups in the mix too. Those are always a bit challenging to think how to pace myself because one muscle-ups are gone, it's quite miserable situation =)

Today muscle-ups were not bad at all. To be honest this workout was all about muscle-ups. Row, wall balls and box jumps were small reps which made it easy to cruise through them. My plan was to take it easy on those though because I reckoned gassing myself out on those would make mu's so much more difficult.

First set was unbroken. Muscle-ups were put here in an ascending ladder, going up by 2 reps per round. On the round of 4's I got 3 in a row, and then a single to finish the round. I made a costly mistake there. I tried to jump on the rings to get the last rep done and couldn't get a grip on the rings. They started to swing back and forth which took some time to get them settled. One more muscle-up was completed on the round of 6's. All the muscle-ups were relatively easier than I thought.

It's not common to have mu's in a metcon for me so these are always good ones. Looking back at the workout I could have gone faster. Usually I know how fast I can go but mu's are still difficult to assess. Maybe that's a good reminder of putting them in metcons more often. That's how I would know better how much my body can tolerate of this skills element, strength and conditioning together.

Friday 4.12: Thrusters, Mu's, Snatch, Hspu, Pistols

Friday. Thruster ladder, 8min amrap of ascending weights. Result, 43 reps. Metcon, 5rds of: 3 bar mu, 5 power snatch (40kg), 7 hspu, 10 pistols.

Weekend is coming and I'm loving it! Today was a good session at the gym. When I was warming up I accidentally heard from one of the coaches that floorball team Tapanilan Erä is coming to train to the gym. I knew there are some old pals that I used to play with in a different team. It was great to see those guys and throw some small talk while we threw down. Great times! These are the guys I miss from playing floorball seriously. The people around us.

Rosendahl!

Barbell conditioning. Result, 43 reps (3x80kg)

• 8min amrap of:
• 10 thruster, 40kg
• 10 thruster, 50kg
• 10 thruster, 60kg
• 10 thruster, 70kg
• 10 thruster, 80kg
• 10 thruster, 90kg… 

Winter War qualifications are now taking place which means they are trying to find out who are the toughest crossfit athletes in Finland. The contest is in February but qualification is taking place now in December. This was event 1 maybe three years ago. This year it was similar with the difference that the weights started at 50kg. Otherwise the same ideology exists. I figured I'd get a better workout by starting at 40kg to get some heavy breathing.

Tapanilan Erä

Went unbroken on the first two sets, both at 40kg and 50kg. Those were pretty self-evident beforehand as I thought about this. It's been time since doing 60kg thrusters so it was a mystery how those would feel like. My warm-up wasn't perfect and I felt my elbows being very tight. After doing 40kg thrusters for couple of sets in the warm-up and stretching a little more, they started to cooperate.

However, I had to power clean the barbell on the front rack before starting the first repetition. Ideally I would squat clean the bar but it makes it more challenging to get a full grip and having an ideal grip to press the barbell up and overhead. 60kg was 6-4 reps.

At 70kg the barbell was clearly heavier but I got through the set with 4-3-3 reps. Last weight was at 80kg, and I had to go for singles for each rep completed. Legs were good all the way, those felt strong all the time. Shoulders are my weaker part compared to legs and core and it was not surprise that upper body bailed on me on the thrusters finally. It was difficult to know how much to rest between attempts. Didn't wanna burn my shoulders out totally but then again it's not cool to have too long of a break.

Thruster ladder

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 3 bar muscle-ups
• 5 power snatch, 40kg
• 7 handstand push-ups
• 10 pistol squats

This was inspired by Bobby Noyce's workout that I saw in Youtube yesterday. This was a little modification compared to that. He also had overhead squats after snatches, and muscle-ups were completed at the rings. Those bar muscle-ups felt in my core after doing 100 ghd's yesterday. Maybe there's a correlation between those. Bar mu's were as perfect as are in my case. I was proud of those for sure.

Last thruster done

Snatches were light but in the course of action it was probably a good weight as after those it was time to throw myself upside down against the wall for hspu's. My butt is still a bit sore but it definitely didn't bother at all. It was awesome to do pistols, it's such a freaking good movement. Everything went unbroken and that was the goal for sure. Didn't have a timer rolling. That didn't change the nature of the workout a bit. This was my best effort for today.