Monday. Cleans (up to 110kg). Front squats (up to 130kg). Pair wod, 100 box, 150 burpees (emom 3 hang power clean @ 60kg).
Uuh, what a training day! As I have written earlier, Toni is about to open his own Box in April with his pal in Varisto, Vantaa. It's called Crossfit Kehä. He invited me to go and test the gym today so it was a no brainer. I was all in right away!
Oly.
Cleans
3x60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100, 105kg
1x110kg
We started with cleans, then continued with squats and finished with a partner workout. Those usually rock big time. Today was no exception in this sense. Cleans felt great all the way! Maybe it was the atmosphere of this affiliate or something but it was just freaking great. These guys have made a good job with the layout. There's plenty of space for metcons, awesome pull-up / squat rig, and the equipment is right on point. I give 10/10 points for this Box.
On the cleans I built up by feeling. Started with triples without thinking about it that much. I kept adding stuff on the bar up to 105kg for a triple. Felt smooth on those too. Unfortunately didn't get that on tape but 100kg triple is there. On the 110kg I wasn't fully satisfied on that rep as I had to re-bounce on the bottom but it was alright anyway.
Strength.
Front squat
5x60kg
3x90, 100, 110, 120kg
2x125kg
1x130kg
It was a natural choice to continue with front squats after squat cleans as legs are already warmed up. Sets at 60kg and 90kg felt awkwardly stiff on my knees for no reason but then as I kept going heavier they felt better and better. And in the end I'm very happy on getting a rather easy 130kg single up.
Pair wod. Time, 12-13min
As a team of two:
100 box jumps
150 burpees
On top of every minute: both complete 3 hang power cleans @ 60kg
This was brutal in its own way. Those cleans started to wear me down at some level. Yes, this definitely was a good metabolic conditioning piece and I'm proud that we were able to have either of us moving constantly. No resting on knees at times. That was no option. It was good to have a partner to push you mentally further. It was a big thing.
We completed both box jumps and burpees in sets of 5 reps pretty much all the time. Some minor deviations from this plan but quite accurately we stuck to the plan. Got to say that every time you put something on top of every minute - this time it was cleans, usually it's burpees - it gives the workout a twisted turn. It doesn't help to rest as the clock doesn't ease the pain. The reps are coming there on top of every minute anyway =)
Wednesday. Clean complex, 5 sets of: tall clean + mid-thigh + full clean. Intervals with partner, 14 rounds of: 4 hang power clean (70kg), 8 t2b, 12 box. Result, 12.49.
Another loooong day at the office but this time I was able to move around much more and prevent body from total system failure =) It was a huge positive surprise as my main man Toni threw me a message in the morning that he could come and train with me after work. He also had the agenda ready. I got a tetanus vaccination in the morning so that kind of disturbed my plans so Toni's suggestion was right on point!
Toni working on his clean complex
Oly.
5 working sets of the following clean complex:
Tall clean
Clean from mid-thigh
Full clean
Every clean as squat clean (80, 85, 85, 85, 85kg)
The first repetition of this complex is by far the most challenging for me. I haven't used to finish the "tall cleans" in this way. Luckily Toni was there to coach me through it. This really forced me to go under the barbell faster than normally. I'm very happy on the way I was able to carry through each tall clean.
The second and third reps were easy. The weights were so light that there were no issues whatsoever. But I had to stay with these weights because the first one wasn't that easy. That one was more like technique training. First set was at 80kg, the rest at 85kg. Maybe 90kg could have been there too. This time I just wanted to learn how to do this.
Recap of complex
Pair workout. Time, 12.49
14 rounds of:
4 hang power clean, 70kg
8 toes-to-bar
12 box jump
Interval style, you go 1 round, I go 1 round. Rest while the other one works
The point of the workout was to do each round as fast as possible. Go all out every round, which means it is 7 rounds per athlete, total of 14 rounds as a team. Total time was 12.49. For me, there was a bit too long recovery between rounds or then the work load put in was too low as I didn't get too gassed. I was hoping the stimulus to be so that I'd be leaning on my elbows after each round. Then recovering just enough for the next round.
The end of our partner wod
Anyway, I believe this kind of intervals have a lot of potential. When doing them solo, the key is to define fixed rest times between sets / rounds / intervals. That allows you to put 100% effort on each round, then recover, and repeat that for a certain amount of rounds. There were about 40 seconds per round on my behalf and rounds were pretty consistent.
One thing is for sure. It was a blast training with Toni. We started our crossfit journey together back in the days, and it's always quality time to train with my best friend. These are rather rare occasions as we workout in different gyms regularly.
We had a training session ahead of us with Jasper. Agenda was pretty open and free but the thought was about doing deadlift, bench and a conditioning piece. Thursday is usually a classic meathead day strength-wise and today was exactly that.
Strength.
Bench press 5-5-5-5-5 (80, 90, 90, 90, 90kg)
We actually started with deadlifts. Barbell was light, back and legs felt great but my hands couldn't take the burden. My palms and fingers seem to be the part which determine whether pulls are going to be good or bad in any given day. Today it felt like my fingers will get cut off. Hurt like hell. Already at 130kg it felt painful on the fingers and palms. 150kg was nightmarish.
I took sets at 60, 100, 130, 150, 150, 130kg for different amount of reps but I don't count this as a strength portion at all. It was a disappointment that I wasn't able to pull heavy. Jasper did his part of the real as planned.
Bench was kind of lame after those deads but little by little I got excited about this movement and got good sets in the books at 90kg. Warm-up was 10x60, 5x70kg.
Pair wod.
2 rounds of:
40 shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg
50 toes-to-bar
60 burpee
Just before we started our metcon I realized I'm in a bit of a rush so it was time to put the clock on and start working. Plan was to do the jerks by changing after every 5 reps, and we stuck to that on the first round. On the second one I did a bit more of the work as I did these as push jerks, and Jazz went with push presses. T2b's were the easiest part of this for me, and I used it more as recovery.
Beforehand we thought burpees would be a walk in the park as we planned to do them in sets of 6 reps, then change. This was not the case though. Yes, we went in sets of 6 reps all the way but they were surprisingly hard on the second round. And the jerks right after these burpees were not tempting but still doable. I felt good on this workout but it surely brought a lot of tension on shoulders. Nice burned with a training buddy.
Monday. Emom x 10min: snatch (up to 55kg). Pair wod, 3rds of: 50 burpee, 120 du, 60 jerk (2x15kg db's).
Monday means some sort olympic lifting. Squats should also be part of this day and I like the idea big time. My lower back has been sore as hell for the past week. It doesn't bother me in real life and in most of the movements. But every time I lift something from the floor or go below parallel. That's why I'll take the squats some other day.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10min
1 snatch
1-3min: 50kg
4-6min: 53kg
7-10min: 55kg
Two things I'm concentrating nowadays every time I pick the barbell from the floor. Shins are as vertical as possible. Secondly, I'll keep my eyes pointed forward, not downwards. Actually there is a third point also. I'll focus on bringing the bar over my knees as slow as possible. It's a basic mistake of mine that I'll be too hasty with the first pull, and thus the bar tends to fly wherever it pleases.
These lifts were a bit shaky on the legs as I look at them afterwards. Could have been slower at the first pull but the starting position seems better than before. That's the takeaway from this session. That back pain disturbed me the later I went in the emom. I was supposed to go for 15 minutes of heavier snatches but that was not possible today.
Pair wod.
3 rounds of:
50 burpee
120 double under
60 shoulder-to-overhead, 2x15kg dumbbells
It was awesome to throw down together with Pauliina. This is couple's quality time at its best! =) This was "you go I go" style workout. We were working towards the same mutual goal as a pair. We did 50 burpees, alternating after every 5 reps. Double unders were done in sets of 20 reps. Got to say I'm extremely proud of how fantastic Pauliina dominates the doubles nowadays! Third element was dumbbell jerks.
Shoulders got shot in this one after all the work was done and over. Actually on the second round of s2o's made the shoulders burn big time. There was a lot of people at the gym so it was a bit difficult to find a spot where we could conquer our space for double unders but we found it. I was trying to convince Pauliina to skip the du's and sub it to something else but luckily she forced us to practice on those. Good partner drill in general this entire workout!
Friday. Clean triples (up to 100kg). Pair wod, 3rds of: 50 pull-ups, 50 dips, 150 du's. Time, 17.40.
This Friday was more like a freestyle session. It says olympic lifts for Friday's nowadays so it was going to be either cleans or snatches. Jerks are out of limits due to painful elbows. Overhead seems to be the worst for that case. But today they were fine, and it's been a while since doing cleans. At least it feels like it. I've focused more on snatches lately. Jasper had matching schedules so it was great to throw down with this mister at the end of the session for a pair workout!
100kg
Oly.
Clean triples (60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100kg)
My lower back felt like it's done a lot of work in the past days so after warm-up I thought of hitting some clean singles at around 90 kilos. Built it up with triples at light weight, and they actually felt very good so I kind of stayed in that mode. At the end I realized there was 100kg's on the barbell for a triple. Not touch'n'go. Dropped it after every repetition, then took another one, didn't rush with the reps.
Felt pretty smooth in each set. Tried to focus on engaging my lats fully, keeping my shoulders back so the barbell would hit a notch higher on my hips. Weights felt good all the way.
Pair wod. Time, 17.40
In a team of two, perform
3 rounds of:
50 pull-up
50 dip
150 double under
This was a lot of fun. Getting the chance to do a workout with a friend rocks. We thought about doing a chipper or then a classic couple-of-rounds type of workout. This was something in between. The volume grew in good numbers. Three elements, 50 reps at bodyweight and 150 double unders per round. "You go - I go" style. Repeat for a total of 3 rounds.
Jasper started with the pull-ups. Once he did his max set, we high fives and changed roles. Alternating for as long as needed to get those 50 pull-ups in the books. And only after we had completed 50 reps of pull-ups we were allowed to move on to the dips. We didn't plan about how to divide the reps between us but we had our thoughts that I might be stronger on the pull-ups and Jasper would demolish the dips.
There was also a point for this reasoning. He did pull-ups strict so it was only natural that I would do more of them. And why did he control the dips? Because he is a pure savage on those. Very proud of how well he smashed them. Strong dude. On the double unders we agreed beforehand that we'd split them into sets of 25 reps, and take turns after each set so these were exactly 75/75 for both per round.
This got tougher by the round, no surprise there, but I'm pretty sure we had consistency in the round times. We didn't tap the timer so I can't guarantee but we didn't keep extra pauses at any stage. Okay, the sets weren't as big towards the end so there must have been some difference. Lats were so numb at some point that pull-ups weren't moving quicker, and on the dips my upper body in general was smashed. Anyway, good breather but mostly muscles hurt so much we weren't able to move faster.
Friday. Emom x 9-10min: 5 c&j @ 60kg. Deadlift 3x10 (max 140kg). Partner wod, 16min amrap. One athlete rows 500m constantly, the other performs 20 burpee, 15 s2o (70kg), 10 pistols.
We had some after work party taking place this Friday. Okay not a huge all night celebration but some sauna, table tennis, food, and bowling. We still had time to hit the gym with my main man Toni. It was a tight schedule so we decided to keep the training session intense from the very beginning. We had lots of work ahead of us so there was no room for slack time. And it definitely was a fast pace session.
Barbell conditioning.
Every minute on the minute x 9-10 minutes:
5 clean and jerk @ 60kg
It was great to have some quality time with Toni. It's always cool to have a partner throw down with you so I had lots of energy and body was fresh so it didn't take long before I had a barbell in front of me with 60kg load. Clean and jerks, emom style at the classic weight.
In the beginning the load felt good, and the bar moved fast. In this endorphin boost it was like nothing. The enthusiasm faded away little by little and the bar got heavier =) In the end I'm not quite sure if it was a total of 9 or 10 minutes. Anyway, a good bunch of reps with this benchmark weight load. I'm happy how smoothly the barbell listened to my commands.
Emoms
Friday pulls.
Deadlift 3x10 reps (120, 130, 140kg)
We had to move pretty quickly to pull from the ground. Toni had some predetermined program for this as 3x8 at a certain percentage work. I needed to get high rep sets in the system. Hadn't thought of the weights at all. To be honest, I was quite devastated after clean and jerks. It got very intense in the end so lots of energy was consumed there.
Still, these deads felt great. But the weights were not huge. I just took the first set at 120kg. That was kind of light so I kept adding 10kg for each set, last one standing at 140kg. I have tried 20-rep max maybe a year ago, and I remember pulling 130kg on that one. Maybe 10's would be ideal at around 150kg when being fresh.
Partner workout. Result, 3 rounds + 20 burpees
16min amrap of:
20 burpee
15 shoulder-to-overhead, 70kg
10 pistol squat
One athlete must row for 500m constantly
Toni had a master plan to finish the session. It looked like a lot of fun on paper. And it was. But we had a little brainfart with the reps. It turned out that Toni did almost all the burpees, and I did jerks and pistols were distributed evenly. The idea was that either of us would have to sit on the rower all the time, changing turns after every 500 meters. The other one is completing the amrap as such. And when we changed on the rower, the other one continued right where the other one stayed on the amrap.
So Toni started, and did 20 burpees. You probably know it's not very nice to do jerks right after a good number of burpees. So he basically did a double and a single, then it was time to change roles. I finished them and got the pistols done all except one. On the next round it was basically the same ideology. Toni did all the burpees, and 3 jerks. I got to the same situation, had 6 pistols when Toni shouted he has 50 meters left. He clearly was eager to smash some pistol squats so I let him finish it.
On the third round he got through all burpees but one, so I had all the jerks to myself. Doing 15 jerks isn't that light anymore so my time was basically consumed there. Toni got the pistols to himself and once again the burpees. He did 79 burpees, I had 1. He did 6 jerks, I did 39 reps. Pistols were 15/15 for both. Good workout but we could have changed the number of reps, to maybe smaller pieces. Then those would have divided more evenly among us. Most likely at least. Now Toni got a good conditioning piece with rowing and burpees. I got a good jerk workout and muscles burned a lot in the upper body. Different kind of stimulus for both of us.
Friday. Back squat 7x5 (125kg). Partner workout, 3rds of: 20 dead (100kg), 60 push-up, 40 db snatch (25kg), 20 burpee box, 20 hspu, 40m lunges (2x25kg db's). Time, 31.30.
It was a blast to have my main man Toni take a surprise visit to my gym. He was supposed to go to his own but I talked him over, and then went to his place to spend the Friday evening. It was back squats again - no surprise there - and then a long ass workout with a partner.
Smolov.
Back squat 7x5 (125kg)
Huh, every day there is a bigger load on my back and it always feels how much more can this body take. But every time up to this point I have walked away victoriously. It sure feels good to complete these sets without problems. There's a lot of mental game in the play as well.
It took me about half an hour to finish the sets so it was about a set every 4 minutes. Recovery was abundant, and my legs got enough rest between sets. All sets were pretty much similar in my head. Quite heavy from the first to last set but still something I was able to manage well.
Squats and start of the wod
Partner workout. Time, 31.30
As a team, complete the following for 3 rounds for time of:
20 deadlift, 100kg
60 push-up
40 dumbbell snatch, 25kg
20 burpee box jump
20 handstand push-up
40m walking lunges, 2x25kg
At first we just brainstormed over the elements we want to have as part of the workout. Pushing, pulling, jumping, lunging, that's pretty much it. Worked well. It turned out to be something like a chipper, consisting anyway of 3 rounds. We had planned on doing certain sets, and we followed the plan for the first round, then improvised on the second and third round to make the movements as fast as possible. That means the sets were a bit shorter so either of us was constantly moving body or weight.
Deadlifts were the easiest part. Easy weight, and just couple of reps. Toni had just done heavy deads for strength and I had Smolov so we decided to keep the weight light. On the push-ups I did 15's at first, and then 10's towards the end.
Db snatches we agreed to do 10 reps in a row, then change. I did 5 on the right hand, then switched to left hand, and completed the reps from hang position at 25 kilos. Both snatches and burpee box jumps brought the heart rate up.
I had thought about doing these strict and did so in the beginning. That would have killed the pace on this workout and so I changed to kipping versions. Toni also had some issues on the hspu's so I completed majority of the reps. Burned shoulders very well.
Lunges with 2x25kg dumbbells was probably the most unpleasant element in this workout. There was no doubt we would go unbroken on those 10 meter walks up and down the green matt. But it felt disgusting at the end of rounds two and three. Good workout for a partner wod for sure. And it was great to throw down with Toni.
Friday. Strength, back squat triples (max 135kg). Pair workout with Toni, 5rds of: 20 shoulder-to-overhead (50kg), 30 pull-ups, 40 ring push-ups. Time, 20.30.
We went to the gym early this afternoon. I had the privilege of working out with Toni, great man and a great athlete. We don't have the opportunities to train that much together so every time I see him work with a barbell, his technique seems to have improved since last time. Today I was admiring his push jerks and split jerks in a similar way, great speed! I got my squats in the beginning, then I talked Toni into throwing down for a pair workout.
Strength.
Back squat, 3x100, 112.5, 127.5, 135, 135, 135, 135kg
Today I had planned on climbing up to heavy weights. Due to this damned wrist I have put a lot of work on lower body this week and yesterday there were plenty of pistol squats and rowing to get these legs smashed. Maybe that's why they weren't that fresh for extreme squatting. In the end, I'm very satisfied to this squat session! The only thing I was left thinking was that my last set was supposed to be hard core: 142.5kg (95%). We talked it over with Toni that maybe it's better to push it through with 135 anyway.
First sets were light and good warm-up sets. First real set was 127.5kg. However, that brought no problems at all but I felt the next set might be rough. And it was. I got a total of 4 sets at 135kg for triples which is 90% of my one rep max. Those were expectably heavy and Toni had to assist the last rep in either the first or second set, probably the first. My legs were chicken legs at that point and I realized it was some mental weakness. One pal was talking positive things to me about the loads I was able to lift so I decided to put some more aggression on the barbell. This resulted in getting the remaining sets done on my own. They were heavy but I got them!
Pair workout. Time, 20.30
5 rounds of:
20 shoulder-to-overhead, 50kg
30 pull-ups
40 ring push-ups
Toni had thought about concentrating only on light barbell work for technical purposes. I'm hoping this guy's back will heal soon so he can start lifting heavy bars again. He was easy to persuade for a pair workout. He had his back problems and I have my wrist issues so we talked it over for some time before we reached a consensus of what we are able to complete =)
This turned out to be shoulder-to-overhead with 50kg, pull-ups and push-ups on rings. I was very optimistic on push presses but still it was scary at the same time. I haven't pushed anything in about two weeks now. I tried it with empty bar and it felt painless. Then I threw 40kg on the bar just to see whether the weights would bring more pressure. It didn't. That feeling was awesome, so we decided to adjust the barbell at 50kg and go for some push jerks.
We agreed on the reps so that we both did 10 reps of jerks in the beginning. Later on in the workout it changed to 5's as our shoulders and triceps were burning too much. As you probably know, the pull-up station is close to a wall and it was too much for Toni to handle as he has used to do strong kipping pull-ups at Crossfit Vantaa where they have a great rig and plenty of room. That was a bit more difficult for that reason so we divided the reps so that Toni did 5's and I did 10's as this was my home turf. I went unbroken in the pull-ups which means to say there were 10x10 reps of pull-ups.
Push-ups are too painful but Toni suggested we'd try out them on the rings. That was a smart decision. In the first round we completed 20 reps in a row, then on the following rounds it was 10's, and a bit smaller sets in the last 1-2 rounds.
Originally we thought about this for 20min amrap but as the 5th round was so close to end we changed our minds in the last round to go a little further. We ended up doing 5 full rounds for time, at 20:30. It was a great feeling to train with Toni!
Tuesday. Strength, deadlift 5x5 (max 185kg). Pair wod, as a team complete: 60 hspu, 80 deadlift (100kg), 100 kb snatch (20kg). Right after as an individual, 2 min amrap of burpees. Result, 39 reps.
Yesterday I wrote my friend returned from abroad back to Finland and luckily we are working in the same building and thus have the possibility to hit crossfit workouts together. We hooked up right away and it was time to do some deadlifting for strength and then a pair workout with Jasper afterwards. Great session!
Jasper in action
Strength.
Deadlift 5x5 (130, 150, 165, 175, 185kg)
When have I done some serious deadlift strength last time? No idea but it's been long time ago! Jasper threw the idea up in the air and it got to say, it sounded good. I wanted to see where I am at right now with this king movement. We decided to go for 5's all the way. That is, not maxing out on singles even though the weights felt good, but exactly see what is the 5RM currently.
This session went very well. I don't keep track on 3 or 5 rep maxes, I only keep notes on the heaviest single lifts. Anyway, I have the feeling my max heavy set would be 3x180kg. Never have I taken a heavier set, they have been singles if I remember correctly. Those earlier sets felt very good and the iron was light so the only option was to keep adding weight on the bar. The 175kg bar was clearly tougher already but after getting it back on the ground I knew there's potential for more.
At the last set - 185kg - the first and last reps were the most challenging. Getting the bar up from the floor for the first time needed a lot of energy but then I got a good rhythm on and went up and down as required. For the last 2 reps I reset at the top, inhaled, kept the air inside, tried to keep a good posture and then lower the bar to the ground and lift it back up. This was a biggie.
Metcon. Pair wod
As a team, complete the following:
60 handstand push-ups
80 deadlift, 100kg
100 kettlebell snatch, 20kg
Right after, both complete 2min amrap of burpees individually
Result, 39 burpees
After pulling the weights from the ground we hit a metcon together as a team. Chipper style stuff. One movement at a time, first hspu's, and once they were completed we moved on to deadlifts, and finally kb snatches. We split the movements in half so both did 50% of the repetitions. I was surprised those handstand push-ups turned heavy at some point. I thought I would knock that amount of reps without issues but in the end it was something like 4's at minimum. We started with 10's and then slowly faded to smaller sets.
Deadlifts we had agreed on both doing 8's all the way so it was 5 sets for both. We both did them unbroken. It didn't feel good on the grip but we managed to fight through. Those heavier sets caused issues on our palms. KB snatches were sets of 10's, changing the hand after every 5 reps. So it was 5 right hand and 5 left hand snatches, then I passed the kb to Jasper who did his share. The workout took us something like 12.30, after which we kept the clock running and worked for a 2min amrap of burpees individually. It was pure grinding for 120 seconds during which we completed the reps almost evenly with same pace, my result in the end was 39 reps. That was a game changer, a very good twist in the end of a workout.
It was awesome to get a chance to hit a workout with this great guy! Jasper is a friend from way back and it seems like he's gonna headquarter at this gym in the future. Hopefully so. Then we are definitely going to do more workouts together in the future.
Thursday. Strength, back squat (max 135kg). Pair workout with Joni. As a team, complete 80 deadlifts (100kg), 100 burpees while other one hold plank position, 80 deadlifts (100kg).
Today was a great training day for sure. In the morning I realized something big regarding olympic lifts and squatting. I was scribbling through Instagram and came across with Chad Vaughn's (@OlyChad) picture where he and posted a battle photo of the legend himself - Chris Spealler - fighting to save a clean in the Crossfit Games this year in the Speed Clean Ladder. He wrote some truths about olympic lifts. With that inspiration in my head I went squatting. Had couple of friends with me at the gym so it was a great training atmosphere to say the least.
Strength. Ass to grass back squats
3x90, 110, 120, 130kg
1x135, 1x140kg failed
5x90kg
What I'm referring with Chad Vaughn is described in the picture below. I have exactly that issue with cleans. I can't get to that position ever. I can pull the bar high enough but my problem is getting myself under the barbell quick enough. I have to drop the bar in the middle of the movement because it feels like I don't have enough time to drop under barbell. Coming up from the hole has never been an issue for me because my clean max loads are so much lower than front squat max loads.
With that in mind I went to the gym determined to try new approach in my squats. Decided to go as low as possible. Not pause squats. Regular squats but doing it with same style as in squat cleans, dropping down ass-to-grass without trying to brake the speed on the way down. I smashed down and then bounced back up and that's the time when I start to use my legs big time. Push it with all you got. At about that time when you bounce back, come back up and you reach parallel level. I found squatting this style very much different to squats where I go just below parallel and then stand back up. Feels like a different movement to say the truth.
I thought the weights would be much further away from my max loads than this. Thought they would be somewhere about 120kg at max. It was an extremely positive signal to realize I was able to knock way heavier weights up and down. The first fail came at 140kg. Didn't want my body to remember that as the last lift so I took an additional 5 reps at lighter weights, easy 90kg.
Metcon. Time 13.54
As a team, complete the following reps:
80 deadlift, 100kg
100 burpees. While one athlete does burpees, the other is in plank hold position
80 deadlift, 100kg
Joni was squatting with me and it was a success day for him. Back squat PR has seen the daylight, great job man!!! After strength training we put the barbell on the ground, piled up some stuff on it and went after a pair workout. Main focus on deadlifts and burpees. Pair workouts are somehow motivational for sure. When you have that training partner beside you, there's a guy to share the feeling with you right on the moment.
We completed deadlift sets on 8 rep-sets all the way. Did them unbroken all the way. We were wondering about the reps and weights for a while and in the end we gotta say these numbers turned out to be perfect for metcon purposes. We kept a good steady and consistent pace in the deadlifts in the beginning and in the end likewise. No need to rest between sets. The period when you caught your breath the other guy was pumping those deads unbroken.
We decided in advance to knock the burpees in sets of 10 reps. While Joni was doing his sets of burpees my role was not to just chill out because that rest period would have been too long and the intensity would have decreased too much. So I was supposed to hold a plank position in the meanwhile. And vice versa of course. That plank hold turned out to be quite horrible. We both figured it would be a walk in the park (not really) but it was disastrous. Can you believe me if I say burpees were the rest in this workout? Well, they definitely were.
Joni is done
It was a good workout for sure! It was great to throw down with Joni for this one. We haven't done many pair workouts in the past even though we hang in there couple of days a week. Thanks for this one dude. Another huge thing was that my pal Jouni was at the gym doing his third crossfit workout. Today I put him to a dark place with the following workout:
1.000m row, then 3rds of:
20 burpees
20 thrusters
20 sit-ups, then:
1.000m row
For a guy who hasn't done crossfit this is uncomfortable stuff indeed. He dug deep but he finally saw the sunlight and was cheering for making it till the end with pride. And his face looked like he felt like a champion. I'm proud of this guy for manhandling this workout!!!
Wednesday. Ring skills. Barbell, overhead squat technique. Metcon, pair wod with my bro. As a team, complete 50 thrusters (50kg), 50 hang power clean (50kg), 50 push jerk (50kg), 50 front squat (50kg), 100 kb swing (32kg). Emom 4 burpees for both. Time 18.57.
It was kind of like a new year's resolution for me and my brother to train together more often this year, something like once a week or once every two weeks. Today was the 5th or 6th time we worked out together =) So we have not been able to stick to the plan. We live about 20 minutes away from each other but all the schedules of work and families are mixing up the time tables every now and then. We have tried but those moments have been rare anyway. Today was one of those valuable moments when I met with my bro for training purposes. And it sure as hell was worth it!
Bros, 2 x Lamppu
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
Sipa has installed Rogue rings in front of their front door so he can practically knock a few muscle-ups every time he likes to. That's pretty awesome if you ask me. The roof is not that high so the hight is not ideal, at least for me. Sipa is shorter and doesn't mind it. I had some mental issues of having the rings lower than to what I'm used to.
Had to go for false grip and bent arms in the starting position. I didn't dare to swing that much because I was afraid to push my head to the ceiling. That's the reason why I landed in such a deep dip position. Take a look at the recap video so you'll know what I mean. Anyway, the muscle-ups felt effortless in general, felt good!
Barbell.
Overhead squats
I would have liked to take some clean and jerks too like my brother did but that right calf of mine is still sensitive. It doesn't hurt at all but I'm afraid it will get back to the same mood it was about a week ago if I smash it against the floor with too much force. That's why I haven't done any box jumps nor double unders either. Don't want it to collide against the ground that heavily.
So overhead squats seemed like a good call, especially as that seems to be my brother's strength. Probably his strongest bar movement so I needed some advice on that. This was purely for technique work. Weights were at around 40-50kg.
Metcon. Pair wod, Time 18.57
As a team, complete the following:
50 thrusters, 50kg
50 hang power clean, 50kg
50 push jerk, 50kg
50 front squat, 50kg
100 kettlebell swing, 32kg
On top of every minute, both complete 4 burpees
We wrote this one down yesterday evening with Sipa. This kind of chippers work pretty well for pair workouts. You gotta complete a bunch of repetitions of one movement before you are allowed to move on to the next movement. This type of pair workouts also flow well with bodyweight movements, let's say for example hspu's, pull-ups, burpees, box jumps etc. Our solution was to work with a weight in each station, 4 barbell movements and 2-pood kettlebell. The twist in the workout was those emom-burpees. Both have to complete 4 burpees in the beginning of every minute. Those are a game-changer.
Barbell work
Thrusters were probably the sickest of these barbell movements. Definitely didn't look forward to moving the bar on my turn, nor was Sipa, but it is a very beneficial movement for sure. Very comprehensive movement and makes you burn in a short time. We did these in sets of 5's, then changed turns. Every time the 60 seconds came full, it was time to drop down in the ground for some burpees, and then continue back with the thrusters as 4 burpees were done by both of us.
After thrusters came power cleans, from hang position. I knocked these faster than ever, touch'n'go style each round. Those shoulder-to-overheads were just grinding it through without thinking that much, we were still moving on in 5's. On the front squats we changed the game plan on the fly and completed 10's, then 8's on the next round and finally 7's to finishing it off. Those front squats were light in nature but at this point those started to burn legs too. Especially as there was no time to catch a breath at any point because the clock was running forward. So you better keep on moving constantly. Kettlebell swings progressed in sets of 10 reps.
Pair workout
Feelings after the workout
We had finally done all the work needed at 18.57. Luckily I had the time to push through those last kb swings in time so there didn't come extra 4 burpees. There was a total of 72 burpees done by both of us in the workout. It's sick to get together with my brother and workout. There's no doubt we push each other more in the wods and gain better results by training together. It's a pity we can't find more time for these purposes.
Second day of my holiday and it's feeling in my body. I guess usually when people are on holiday they're taking it easier and charging batteries. For me, it's quite the opposite. There are no schedule-related problems and I can more easily find time to workout. So I met with my bro at Liikuntamylly in the morning for couple of pair workouts, and in the evening we went to "home gym" with Pauliina for some rowing intervals and mobility.
Metcon. Pair wod
5 rounds of:
10 burpee broad jump
200m run
2 bar muscle-ups
My brother has been following competitorswod.com programming for about couple of months now and he usually does metcons before strength. So we went by that plan today as well. After warming up a little - indeed, just a little - we started doing work. There was a newcomer movement: burpee broad jump, which basically means you first complete a burpee, then do a broad jump. As simple as that but it gives an extra twist to the movement. Try and you know.
While Sipa was running, I was doing burpees. As he was finished, we changed roles. I went running and he completed the burpee jumps. After both had done both athletes, we did the unbroken bar muscle-ups in turns. First I did 2, then Sipa did 2, and then we headed for another round.
Maybe the burpee broad jumps were the nastiest of the 3 elements. Burpees themselves are not the funniest movements. Add "explosive" broad jump in to the mix and it's even less fun. Somewhere in the process it still turns into fun… It burns but feels good.
Overhead squats.
5x40, 3x50, 3x60, 1x65kg
We had plans to hit heavier weights on overhead squats. I had plans of hitting 60+ weights on 5 sets for triples or something like that. However, we both had some elbow issues that bothered the barbell work. I didn't wanna risk anything and cut the squats after 65kg. I had a slight technical error in the last set, the bar leaned forward and I lost the barbell. The bar itself didn't weigh that much in any of the set. Sipa nailed 8 reps @ 70kg. Good job bro!
Metcon. Pair wod
5 rounds of:
5 deadlift, 100kg
20 wall ball, 5kg, 5m
15 box jump, 60cm
This was created on the spot. We were thinking about smashing some ohs and squat snatch for strength but this was definitely a better idea. First we thought of doing a simple bodyweight metcon but then we threw in a lightweight deadlift in to play. And I'm glad we did, to have some strength element there too. It was intentionally light. There's only 5kg wall balls at the place so we had to settle for that. It would have been awesome to have rx'd wall ball (9kg). Instead, we threw the ball to about 5m instead of the traditional 3m distance. The box felt like it was about the same as Rogue's box (61cm).
Bought some rock tape today
This workout was a good fun metcon in the end. I wished the wall ball was heavier. Other than that, the entire point was to keep the guys moving, the weights were not the thing. More focus on metabolic condition. And it served pretty well.
Cardio.
Row intervals
10 rounds of:
300m row easy, sub 1.55 pace
300m row sprint, about 1.45 pace
1m rest
After eating, having a nap (love the holiday that allows this!) and letting body absorb the recovery, we put the training cloths on again and headed to our home gym. My workout consisted purely on rowing. I saw this on Garrett Fisher's Instagram, he did it with his sister, and wrote it was "terrible". Now I know why. It was a 6km interval work. Naturally he rowed a bit faster, 5 seconds in both "easy" and the "sprint" part.
It took a total of about half an hour, including rest
I really believe doing row intervals are a great way to build up the engine within you. It's cruel, that's for sure but the pros overcome the nasty feeling during the workout. Plus I'm fast in recovering from these intervals. It's not that much the breathing in rowing that makes me sick, it's more of the burn in my legs. I'm able to handle the heavy breathing. Rowing intervals should be a compulsory thing every week.
In the end of the training session I did lots of mobility, used foam roll, lacrosse ball and resistance band plus traditional stretching. Felt very good to do some body maintenance. More foam rolling ahead of me in the evening.
Here's Toni's CF Open 14.2, result was 71 reps, good job man!
Sunday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Strength, front squats with a pause. Pair wod with Sipa, chipper: 60 hspu, 120 pull-ups, 150 box, 100 burpees. Time 17.42.
This was a cool day, got my big bro to train with me after weeks or months break since last time. It was awesome to get him live at the gym to work on our ring skills and then complete a pair wod together with him. I took some front squats between rings and metcon.
Skills. Ring muscle-ups. It's been 10 days since my first mu and since then I've been able ti do multiple reps. My bro got his months ago, maybe last summer, don't know, but anyway he's done a bunch of them. He also happens to have an issue there: they've all been singles. He understood the technique way earlier than me and has done tens and hundreds of 'em. I've tried to learn from him but we've never had the possibility to work on this technique together. This day was valuable in this sense.
The biggest news was that Sipa was able to do not 1, not 2 but 3 reps in a row!!! That's huge man. I feel like each rep I complete consumes a lot of energy. At least at my current style. The secret behind Sipa's 3 rep set was false grip. He was able to maintain that grip and thus the starting point in the bottom position was similar in all mu's. Good job man!
Strength. Front squats with 3sec pause (60, 80, 90, 100, 100, 100kg). First time ever doing squats with a pause. And it felt good! I had no idea what kind of weights I should be using for this type of squats. I thought the weights should be lighter compared to regular weights. So I started with light ones and added from there on. Didn't go to the ceiling, I stayed at 100kg for the last sets.
I think I'll might go after these squats more often, also in back squats. I assume it helps the athlete to get out of the hole easier. Lately pause squats seem to have become more regular among crossfitters. That's the reason I wanted to take a shot at them.
Pair chipper. Time 17.42.
60 handstand push-ups (in sets of 5)
120 pull-ups (in sets of 10)
150 box jumps, 61cm (in sets of 10)
100 burpees (in sets of 10)
This was a pair wod, chipper style, meaning there are no rounds, there's just a bunch of movements you chip away. Complete a number of reps of a certain movement, and once you've done them all, you move on to the next movement. Because we are pretty much equal in the movements in the wod we decided to determine the number of reps to be completed. So we went in sets of 10 except the hspu's were in sets of 5 reps per brother.
Another style to complete a chipper with a partner is to do "you go, I go", going max reps per set and then change turns. I've tried both and both work. In the latter option you're ending up to do more reps in a row. In this equal distribution it's as much work / recovery. This worked very well for these bro's as the burden was similar for both of us.
The only movement I had issues with was handstand push-ups. The number wasn't huge but because Sipa was effective with them, I had little time to recover. 30 reps felt like more work had been done. The first 20 reps were okay, the last 2 sets were more challenging. Last set was 4+1, others unbroken.
Pull-ups weren't bad. I'm feeling confident hanging from the pull-up bar and I could have continued longer. There was a difference on the 2 first movements between me and Sipa. He was clearly more effective on the hspu's and I was with the pull-ups. He made the handstand push-ups look so easy.
Box jumps we did in sets of 10 reps, Games standards as always: full extension on top of the box. There were no probs for either of us, unbroken all the way. We were able to keep a good pace in all movements actually. The number of reps per set were suitable, we didn't have to stop for breathing, just kept going all the time.
Burpees were the last element, 100 reps, 50 for both. I put the last gear on on after 20 reps. I tried to go as fast as I've ever gone, full speed, all in. The end result was that we did the 100 reps in about 4 minutes. We finished at 17.42. Hspu's were about 4:30, pull-ups 3:20, box jumps 5:40 and burpees 4:10.
It was a great day, I love these days were I have a training partner. First some ring skills, then strength and a pair wod, that's a dream come true type of training day! Pauliina was obviously with us at the gym.
Friday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Pair wod, Air Force. Technique, back squat and clean. Cashout, 4x5 c2b pull-ups.
Got together with Toni to do a pair wod. We're thinking of doing Air Force separately but decided to make it a pair wod instead. We didn't mind the clock at all, I don't actually have no idea how much it took us to complete the set. I also did some muscle-up training in the beginning for skills training and then technical fine-tuning for back squats and hang cleans. After a long pause tried also c2b pull-ups and realized it's way easier than some months ago. That inspired me to take a few sets.
One athlete working at a time, completing 20 reps before the next athlete steps in
Complete the movements with a 42.5kg barbell
For every drop, both athletes complete 5 burpees on the spot
Normally you do Air Force individually with 20 reps each 5 movements. The twist is that you'll complete 4 burpees on the start of every minute. That really sucks =) And you don't really get to rest that much because the clock is ticking and the next set of burpees is waiting you again in no time. We mixed it up by going for pair wod, doubling the reps but the idea was that both complete 20 reps of each movement. I started, went for 20 thrusters, then Toni did 20 thrusters, then move on to sdhp's. Every single time either of us had to drop the barbell, the punishment was 5 burpees for both of us.
Felt strong with the movements. Thrusters unbroken, sdhp's unbroken, push jerks unbroken, overhead squats in 12+8, front squats unbroken. I was a bit worried pre-workout about the overhead squats. Last time I was ashamed those were too difficult to overcome, had no reps at all with the rx'd barbell and had to skip them totally. Since February, I've improved greatly on the movement and today I had no problems in executing the reps successfully. Had to still break it in 2 sets, dropped the bar after first 12 reps, did the burpees and finished the set.
Don't know what the case would have been with 4 burpees in the start of every minute. It's a rush to get all 20 reps done each minute. All thrusters should be done in the first minute but from then on I don't know how it would turn out. Tomorrow it felt better to do this as pair wod anyway. We had 45 burpees in total with Toni during the workout. The most difficult part of the workout for Toni was definitely the ohs. It's only because he's not been practicing them. I'm sure he's gonna fix this one. I punished myself in the end by doing 20 extra burpees.
Cashout.
4x5 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Pauliina worked on her pull-up skills and I got so inspired that I had to jump up there as well. Tried a few c2b's just to see it's like from another planet compared to what it used to be. That's why I took 4 sets of 5 reps. I might just take these short sets in the end once in a while. I'm sure all those muscle-up training sessions have created more explosive strength because I'm sure I've never pulled myself that high with as much ease as today.
Tuesday. Sprints 4x400m with 90sec recovery. Pair wod with my bro. As a team, complete the following set of movements: 150 pull-ups, 150 burpees, 150 kb snatches (20kg). Time 23min.
Yes man! It was time for some outdoors training, one of the best shots of the week. I love these workouts. It's awesome to enjoy the summer weather and do some serious workouts with friends. Today Marko was not able to make it but Toni and my brother came along. We had some pair wod in front of us. Prior to that, we did sprints.
Sprints. Time 10.04
Run 4x400m
Rest 90sec between rounds
Time 10.04. On average this means 1.23.5 min per round. The first round was sick. It was clearly seen we are brothers with Sipa and the rivalry between us is fierce. Even though neither of us openly admits it before a metcon, it's obvious we both need to beat that other guy. Our first sprint was fast compared to our normal running pace. I led the round all the way to 250m, on the following 50m Sipa caught me and the final 100m we ran side by side to the goal line. Neither of us took an extreme sprint in the end because there were 3 rounds more to be completed. I thought the pace was not that fast but I stopped the clock at 1.10 so it definitely was faster than we would normally run.
It took some of the sharpest edge from both of us and pace got slower especially on the last two rounds. Second round was around 1.20 and the last 2 rounds about 1.30. Toni's first round was 1.27, then pace also got a little slower, 1.30 plus minus 5 sec.
Bros
Pair wod. Time 23min
As a team, complete the following set of movements
150 pull-ups
150 burpees
150 kettlebell snatches, 20kg
Our legs were pretty wasted at this moment. Without a proper warm-up they were smashed. It was time to move on the the pull-up bar. The workout we did with my bro included 2 bodyweight movements and one kettlebell move. First, 150 pull-ups in a row, then 150 burpees and finally 150 kb snatches. All pull-ups have to be completed before entering to burpees, and then snatches.
Pair wod, pull-ups and burpees, first 10min
Our strategy was to go in sets of 10 reps throughout the workout. It pretty much went like that. I did 10's in the pull-ups whereas Sipa changed it to 5's after 100 reps. No big difference there. Other than that, we both went as planned. Good job! And those kettlebell snatches were the first ones for bro, he's openly done dumbbell snatches. The movement is almost the same but the way you have to handle the bell in the up-position so that it doesn't destroy your wrists.
KB Snatches
In the pull-ups I had to concentrate to get all those reps unbroken. I could have managed the sets up to 200 reps, I believe. That would have meant 100 reps for me. Burpees got breathing going faster and the snatches were not that difficult for me. We wouldn't have a more suitable weight in the snatches. 32kg would have been too tough? This was a good workout and it was spectacular to do it as a pair wod!
The end of the metcon, kb snatches
Toni's workout.
400m run
2min burpees (40 reps)
400m run
2min double unders (70 reps)
400m run
2min kettlebell swings, 32kg (34 reps)
400m run
2min wood thrusters (34 reps)
Toni was supposed to do this as a pair wod with Marko. The other one runs 400m and the other one does certain movements. Once the first guy finishes his 400m run, they switch roles. However, Marko wasn't able to come today (bit of a flu) so Toni imagined Marko was running for exactly 2min. Works well. Those repetition numbers in brackets above are numbers Toni gave me afterwords. He said those are more like estimates.
