Saturday 3.1: Clean and jerk complex, 30min pair wod

Saturday. Skills, muscle-ups, rope climb. Strength, c&j complex, 1 clean + 3 jerk (max 95kg). Pair workout, 30min amrap of: 4 rope climb, 8 bar mu's, 16 burpee box, 32 partner wb's, 18m overhead walking lunges (40kg). Result, 5rds + 3 rope climb.

Great experience! Working out with Toni. This was my third trip to his crossfit affiliate ever. Every time it's been like two kids in a candy shop. These training sessions have been a blast and awesome things have happened. We like to throw down for a pair workout those times that we rarely get to train together. Today I learned new skills, we hit oly lifts and finally a long metcon together. It was probably closer to 3 hours that I spent at the Box. Later in the afternoon I headed downtown with Pauliina for a date night. Food and movies, just the way we like it =)

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups
• Rope climb

I took about an hour to warm-up. No need to rush at all. That is great, body thanks for it every time. There was open gym and the Box was full of people so I took my time and taped up, mobilized my joints, did lots of Coach Burgener warm-ups, foam rolled, used resistance band to open up my shoulders and lats too. It was also awesome to just see everybody work their fitness. There were some studs at the affiliate. Couple of them are headed to Winter War, Finland's national competition to find out who's the toughest man / woman in the country.

Finally I touched the pull-up bar, took couple of reps just to get the rhythm going on. The rig was great and it's easy to string reps together. Much easier compared to my home gym, no doubt about it. There's so much room for legs to move around that you can use a good kip. For pull-ups I've developed a style where I don't need it anymore that much but for muscle-ups it's a taken.

For the first attempt at bar mu's I took 4 good reps. It's been a while since last time I had the chance to try these because at my home gym I should do them pretty strict and I haven't practiced those at all. So it must have been some time in autumn I took my previous bar mu's. Before any attempts I did couple of reps in my head to ease the path. After first rep it got back to muscle memory right away. On the second attempt I took 7 reps. Just for fun, getting the touch on the movement. Great feeling!

It was awesome to see people started to work their muscle-ups too, and we talked with couple of dudes on how to get those mu's rolling. I felt very humble people came to talk to me like I was a regular at their Box and give credits on those repetitions. They were also interested in the background as I'm not training at any affiliate. The atmosphere is warm here at Crossfit Vantaa. I understand why Toni busts his ass there on a regular basis.

I've touched a rope three times in my life. And completed as much as 2 rope climbs that I remember in all 35 years of my life. Climbing ropes was anyway my idea. I want to know how it feels like and I also want to be good at it. It's been in the back of my head to acquire a rope and throw it around a tree branch for some play time. Anyway, after Toni showed me how to do them, it was easy. It burned but there were no issues in getting up there.

Strength.

• Clean and jerk complex
• 1 clean + 3 split jerk (60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95kg)
• 1 clean and jerk at 100kg

Little by little people started to leave from the Open Gym and we had time and space to work these complexes. Toni was guiding people during the morning so he couldn't work on his own naturally. We both completed clean & jerks in complex style. I did the same as last earlier, 1+3 style as jerk is weaker than clean. Toni has quite the opposite so he did 2 cleans + 1 jerk.

These felt good. I climbed up without a proper plan. Hit 80kg jerks t'n'g from front rack, and from 85kg on I took a breath before jerking it again. Okay, the bar was quite heavy even though I got them done well. So I didn't go heavier than 95kg even though I had something like that in mind. Still, I wanted to take one rep at 100kg just to get that heavy single under my belt. Have to get those heavy singles done too. I'm very satisfied on this strength portion!

Pair workout. Result, 5 rounds + 3 rope climb

• 30min amrap of:
• 4 rope climb
• 8 bar muscle-ups
• 16 burpee box jump
• 32 partner wall ball shots
• 18m overhead walking lunges, 40kg

Long workout. Neither of us knew how this would turn out to be like. It was a wild card so to say. With my top climb background and high-rep number of bar muscle-ups in a metcon, hmm. Haven't done them in metcons at all. And those are not walk in the park for my training partner either. He can definitely do both of them which is freaking awesome but these were both something that we are not used to on a regular basis. Plus Toni just did 28 bar mu's yesterday in his training session, that's a lot for us.

There were lots of elements that are not everyday elements. I'm really happy we were both able to perform well and consistently throughout the workout. In addition to ropes and mu's, we added spice to this soup by throwing partner wall balls in. That means I shot the 9kg ball to the wall, Toni caught it, and threw it right back. Overhead walking lunges are always a pleasure. Not very often you see these, my share of oh lunges usually takes place in Klaukkala when I work outdoors at the in-laws.

This workout was very well planned after all. Risk was worth taking. And it feels so good to get these new elements included in a metcon. We were able to maintain a solid pace all the way. Basically there weren't any big breaks when clock was running. This was more like interval training. While I was working, Toni had his break. When I was done, it was high fives and you're on mister.

We did rope climbs in singles, one for me, one for Toni, and repeat. Plan for the muscle-ups was to split them in 2 sets, 4 & 4. That worked perfectly for first 2 rounds. From then on I did 5 and Toni did 3 reps. Those were damned hard towards the end but we both nailed them as planned. Awesome work pal!

Burpee box jumps were naturally 8-8 for both. It was probably a bit tougher for Toni as I did them first, and he was down then. I had my time to settle breathing down whereas he was getting some wall balls right at his face after burpee boxes. Those box jumps really got to our legs, even with as few reps but still. Lunges were okay, not the toughest of these but they still got the wod-feeling on. And it never got easier to jump for the rope again.

Fastened recap of the entire 30 minutes

We battled through 5 full rounds and 3 rope climbs before the time cap was done. Got a total of 40 bar muscle-ups during the day and 15 rope climbs in addition to all other work. We got Toni a new toy for birthday present in addition to the Rogue box =), and he started to play with it right away. Sony's version of the Go Pro camera. Freaking awesome tool. Check out Ponyschannel on Instagram to see couple of videos from today's training. The video above is also made with that camera.

Tuesday 9.7: OHS, back squat emom, metcon + levers, mobility

Tuesday. AM: Overhead squat 3-3-2-2-1-1 (max PR 70kg). Back squat, emom 3 reps @ 100kg for 10min. Metcon, overhead walk, pistols, front rack lunges, hspu. Time 12.58. PM: row 2k easily, elbow levers, mobility, stretching.

Uuh mama! Another shot to train @ Liikuntamylly. The place is spectacular, can't describe it well enough. Now I'm probably getting close to the feeling of people working out at a regular crossfit box. Only imagination is a limiting factor because you have everything there. That's why my workouts today were a bit different. Overhead squats (possibility to drop weights) and the elements of the metcon are impossible for me to carry out at my home gym. In the evening I went to gym for elbow levers and mobility,

Warm-up.

• Run 800m, then 3 rounds of:
• 10 push-ups
• 20 air squats, then:
• 50 wall balls, 5kg

This was a good set to get some blood running in my veins. Running for starters, feels good as normally I get to cycle or row to begin with. That wall ball was also a little twist. Unfortunately that ball was the heaviest, otherwise I would have nailed Karen at some point.

Strength. Overhead squats 3-3-2-2-1-1 (40, 50, 55, 60, 65, PR 70kg). Yes! I tried this about a month ago, that time I also shared previous record of 65kg but failed on the 70kg. Today on my first attempt of 70kg my core collapsed, then shoulders and that made me drop the bar. After half a minute of desperation I realized I'm in the best place to work out, I'm having my PR shirt on and above all, this should be fun. I went back to the barbell, took it in back rack, jerked it up, got my lunges full of air and did what I came here for. It might have been a bit shy of parallel. I'm not used to do squats without mirrors so it was difficult to know. My overhead squats are deep nowadays but this might have been some cents short. Anyway, it felt very good!

Back squat emom. Back squat, 3 reps every minute on the minute @ 100kg for 10 minutes.

Yesterday evening I planned to go for front squat singles as well but then realized it's more vital to work on my hamstring and posterior chain in general to some day squat 150kg. That's my goal to say it out loud. I need to work with semi heavy loads and get more reps. The load today was pretty good for me. I really like the emom training method because it gets to your breathing, muscles durability and strength in the long run.

I went for 10 minutes. Had no problems to lift that 100kg each minute. A total of 30 reps. Next time I might add some weight, 105-110kg. Good pressure on my hamstrings. And my goal was to go as deep as possible, definitely below parallel.

Metcon. Time 12.58

• 4 rounds of:
• 25m walk, barbell overhead carry, 40kg
• 5/5 pistol squats
• 25m lunges, with bar in front rack position, 40kg
• 5 handstand push-ups

This was sick. I realized after first round it's gonna be tough, especially on legs. I had this totally planned yesterday except for the pistols. Had an empty space there so I went to ask Pauliina what she would throw in there. The answer was cruel. Those pistols changed the game pretty much. Going for weighted front rack lunges after that made my legs burn deeply.

The first element - overhead carry - was a little light. Would have been perfect with maybe 60kg. Then it would have been tough as well. However, I had to use the same barbell so 60kg would have been a disaster in the lunges part. On the first round my pistols were a bit shaky, then it got better. Tougher but with better and smoother technique.

On the first round those lunges went unbroken, the remaining round I had to drop the bar once each round. Handstand push-ups went unbroken which pleases me a lot. I did some strict reps each round and once it started to get on my triceps I changed it to kipping hspu's.

This morning session was at least as spectacular as yesterday. Another PR saw day the light and I got to work on my lower body very well. No need to rush, I took my time in the cooling down as well. I ran for 1.000m and stretched as well.

Row, levers, mobility. After working hours Pauliina had scheduled hitting the gym so I joined her but was determined to take it easy. Rowing 2k with a slow pace to start with. I intentionally kept the pace close to 2:00 / 500m, with a smaller damper setting that normally, it took me 7.53 to finish it. Just to activate the body and get ready for stretching.

I got carried away with elbow levers, inspired from Prasara Yoga, I've added some video clips lately. It is an awesome movement to get to know your body, core and balance. I've been working on that one-handed elbow lever, same today. One of my friends showed 2-handed elbow levers as an example so I gave it a shot and succeeded in the movement at first try! Tried it twice, felt pretty natural actually. I'm gonna work on that one-handed lever progression in the future as well. Good work for core, balance and definitely on shoulders.

Toni's workouts.

• Strength. Clean 3-3-3-3-3-2-2-3 (60, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 80 80kg)
• Workout. 10 to 1, down by 1's. Scaled hspu, toes-to-bar. For completion

Toni completed clean triples, power cleans as always. He's done squat cleans with mainly warm-up weights only. It came up nicely up to 70-75kg. On the 80kg bar he missed that third rep twice but after he realized it was only a mental game, he finished the last set with style. He had the bar high enough on the earlier sets as well but just didn't go under the bar quickly enough.

On the workout / metcon, it was purely for completion, not for time. Handstand push-ups wrere scaled to a foam roll. There were 55 reps both movements. Starting from 10 reps, coming down to 1 rep, down by 1 rep at a time.

The Crossfit Games Finals begin 22nd July!