Friday. Snatch / Ohs e2mom complex @ 60kg for 16min. Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg. Intervals, every 3:00, for 15min: 1 rope + 4x10m light sled push. Hang power clean triples, build up (up to 95kg). Accessory, 50 hspu.
This time I took my time at the gym. It turned out to be an effective session and I moved around between different portions. Started with snatch complex, then front squats for strength, intervals, more olympic lifts, and gymnastics work.
Oly.
Snatch + Overhead squat complex @ 60kg
Every 2:00 minutes, perform
1+3
1+3
2+2
2+2
3+1
3+1
4+0
4+0
This one was stolen from one athlete who's been working at Toni's Box the past week. It sounded like a great complex for improving snatch. Started with one snatch and more overhead squats, then changed so that the number of snatches increased and ohs decreased. The barbell remained at 60kg at all times.
There were some reps I wasn't satisfied with. It's not a good rep in my books if you have to catch it by stepping forward. You should be able to catch it where you land. My warm-up was also short and hips weren't feeling mobile so I stayed above parallel. Other than that the barbell felt good all the way and there were no misses at all. It's cool to see good things are happening at 60kg.
Strength.
Every 2:00, front squats 6x2 @ 110kg
Feels like an eternity since squatting. Last time it was back squats, this time front squats. Felt stiff and slow from the very first set. However, on the video it looks pretty good. Okay, it's still not the most explosive out of the hole but elbows seem to point straight ahead and form stays good.
Sprints, one rope up and down, then a sled that only had 4x10kg bumpers on. Went down and back for 4 legs of the matt. Felt miserable on the legs. I got 5 of these sets completed, one round every 3 minutes.
Oly.
Hang power cleans, build up to a heavy triple (40, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95kg)
We were pretty much ready and everything had been performed what we had thought of. I threw in the idea of Toni joining me to pull some barbell from hang position. We basically didn't have any plans. I took a triple, and he followed. Round by round we added a bit weight until we reached something that could be described as a personal record for both of us. Toni was doing these as hang squat cleans.
I don't remember taking 3 reps of hang power cleans ever @ 95kg. It was remarkable for me! Gainz. Toni also reckoned that weight to be his record for a triple @ 95kg. Great work mister!
Gymnastics.
50 handstand push-ups
In the end I did quick gymnastics piece to burn shoulders and improve skills. Goal was to do sets of 10 reps with short rest periods. Those recovery times were on point. I got to 40 with 10-rep sets, then 2x5 to finish it. I was satisfied to these at this point of the session.
Toni did benchmark workout Cindy of which you can see the last reps here
Monday. Clean and jerk 6x3 @ 70, 75, 80kg. Skills, handstand. Wod, 4rds of: 2 rope climbs, 25 du.
Olraight, another training day with Toni @ CF Kehä. We met in the morning. Even though we had a bit different approach to the session I believe we both got what we wanted. Toni worked on his handstand practice and then did a 30min emom alternating between rowing 15 cals and 30 double unders, together with Antti. I wanted to play with the barbell but jumped in on the handstand walks.
Oly.
Clean and jerk 6x3 @ 70, 70, 75, 75, 80, 80kg
These were supposed to be touch'n'go triples all the way. I'm okay with finishing each set overhead but it wasn't cool that I needed to pause on the front rack on the last reps of the 80kg sets. I was looking to bounce it right off my chest and over my head. Sets between 70-75 kilos moved up nicely.
Skills.
Handstand
It's been an eternity since practicing handstand walks. Considering that they went pretty nicely. The biggest weakness there is to learn how to breath properly when being inverted. On the other hand I'm happy I can save the form even when it feels like it's about to fall down.
Workout.
4 rounds of:
2 rope climbs
25 double unders
The last two times I have climbed a rope my left shin has been bruised, bled and been torn and worn. The first of those times kept it out of order for a month. Needed to get some medicine to get that inflammation away from there. So I purchased a shin protector from Rogue which was a lifesaver in action. I'm telling you I will never ever climb a rope without that anymore.
I started this workout as emom wod. Odd minutes were 2 rope climbs and even minutes were 25 double unders. After 2 rounds my shoulders felt like they needed a little more rest so I stopped watching the timer and just worked by feeling. First climb was okay all the time but that second one required some focus and strength. Double unders went nicely today.
Saturday. AM. Ohs triples, build up to a heavy triple (up to 75kg). Wod, 10rds of: 3 power clean (85kg), 3 back squat (110kg). Time, 12.25. PM. Wod, 5-4-3-2-1 rope climb, 15 medball clean.
Thursday and Friday were full rest days. We had lots of stuff to be taken care of and I simply didn't find time to hit a workout. And that felt kind of good anyway so I let the gainz take control on those recovery days. On Saturday I woke up early to hit the gym for barbell work. Then at noon we traveled to Klaukkala to spend the weekend with Kari and Maija. It was a double training session.
Oly.
Overhead squat
Build up to a heavy triple (40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75kg)
It's been a while since doing overhead squats at real weights. My wrist have not liked this movement and it feels a bit awkward on this movement. It's kind of funny as it doesn't matter on the snatch though. I started at 40kg, then added 5kg after each set. No time domain here, just went on by feeling. It was rather straight forward action anyway with short recoveries.
I'm very happy on these weights. Probably the most I've been able to overhead squat for a triple. This movement is not the best of my lifts by a long mile. I've done 90kg for a single once but it gets really heavy at around these loads.
Metcon. Time, 12.25
10 rounds of:
3 power clean @ 85kg
3 back squat @ 110kg
This was different kind of action with only barbells in sight. Usually there is some bodyweight element included but doing just barbell work is a different kind of nature. The weights were moderately heavy so that I can't just go and rip it all the time. However, it was supposed to be something I can still move nicely. That means it's gonna hurt.
Got the power cleans in singles all the way from the very first set. It was heavy but manageable. Back squats were obviously unbroken. Had to take my time between movements in order to perform well all the time. In the beginning it was about one minute per round for 3-4 minutes, then it started to get a little longer per one round.
Metcon.
5 rope climb
15 medball clean
4 rope climb
15 medball clean
3 rope climb
15 medball clean
2 rope climb
15 medball climb
1 rope climb
15 medball clean
In the evening we went to the nearby park with Kari to do a workout in the nature. It's been 3-4 weeks from HC Triplet. During the last event there (15min amrap of rope climbs) I hurt my left shin big time. It got rubbed agains the rope so bad that it went all bloody from two sides of the shin. Afterwards it got inflamed and it took weeks to get the wounds totally healed up.
So yesterday I thought now it's about to test rope climbs again. The result was that the same wounds are now open and active again. Got to medicate those rashes well… Hopefully they recover much sooner this time.
Anyway, this workout was super cool! Holy arm pump. I can manage some rope climbs for sure but getting some volume on this movement gets to my body. Great workout.
Saturday. HC Triplet Goes Kehä. Three team events with Toni and Sipa.
Huh what a competition day with the boys!!! The volume ramped up to this year's HC Triplet. To see what HC Triplet is really about you can scroll to the right hand side of the blog and check the links to prior Triplets. This was the fifth time we arranged this with Toni. Last two times my bro has been part of it too. Shortly, the idea is to thrown down for 3 grueling events to torture our bodies and minds. This year's "games" were a success as well. First time we did this inside, location was Toni's crossfit affiliate called Crossfit Kehä. Usually we have been outdoors, mainly in Pirkkola sports park. This was also the first year we had barbells included in the game.
Event 1. Time, 38 minutes
One athlete rows 300m constantly
In the mean while, 2 athletes chew down a chipper of:
50 bar muscle-ups
100 burpee box jumps
50 handstand push-ups
100 pull-ups
50 squat cleans @ 80kg
50 thrusters @ 50kg
All of the three events were supposed to be different style and different stimulus. The first one was classic chipper style workout with one guy rowing at the sidelines all the time. Just row your 300 meters and tag next one in line for rowing. We rotated the rower evenly of course for the entire 38 minutes that this bad boy took us to complete.
This felt like it took an eternity. It was difficult to know exactly how much it would take time but it was no surprise it took energy, a lot of energy to get to the finish. Our plan was to go by feeling. We didn't divide the work load evenly, just agreed to go for a good bunch of reps, then tag the next one to work on his behalf.
Bar mu's kind of fell on my neck to complete mostly. Those felt pretty good today. I reckoned not to take too big bites as it was the first part of the workout. It was 3-5 reps per set all the way. Burpee box jumps were about 5 reps per dude at a time. That seemed to suit well for everybody.
Hspu's felt very good. Those also seemed to be good for Sipa and Toni too. So I only got to do one set for 10 reps and the second one for 5 reps. At this point I thought they would suck more but luckily not.
Pull-ups. Those could have potentially destroyed us but there was good mental strength and someone was hanging on the pull-up bar constantly. Toni ripped his hands right on the bar mu's so these were nasty to go after with a bloody blister in hand. Luckily he found a glove in his bag. It was probably not cool to do pull-ups with just fingers.
God damn that squat clean @ 80kg! Especially the first reps felt heavy. I was able to rack that barbell perfectly every time. It just felt heavy as hell in the bottom position. There was no doubt of standing it up though. But it really smoked legs and hip flexors with every lift. But those got better through time on everybody's behalf. I believe I got most of these done. Ideally it was planned so that we would do quick singles but it change on the fly and went by feeling.
In the beginning thrusters felt like they would definitely be the most disgusting element. Never have I done so light thrusters at 50 kilos! After 80kg barbell that really felt something we smashed rather easily. It was about sets of 5 reps all the way. Finally after 38 minutes it was over. Very good job guys! Great way to start the Triplet, awesome commitment from everybody!
Event 1
Event 2.
PART A. Time 17min
Interval work of kettlebells and shuttle runs
Each athele completes one round of work, tags the next one to work the same work load. Once every athlete has completed the first round, they move on to the next round
5th round: 20 double kettlebell front squats @ 16kg + 10x10m shuttle run
PART B. Result, 74 reps.
Right into part b, as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
Clean and jerks @ 70kg
This was nasty. If the first was more of a long, grueling chipper, this was interval work where legs were destined to get murdered in the process. Point was that Sipa started, he completed the 1st round of work, Toni and me rested in the mean while. Once Sipa threw himself over the finish line, I completed the same work load. And after I had done my part, Toni did his. After Toni, Sipa moved on to round 2, and this system continued through all 5 rounds.
The dark place definitely showed up on the shuttle runs. It was shuttle runs on purpose. That's a million times worse than 100m run itself. It really didn't matter which element of these five alternatives was going on. Okay they first swings were heavier, and front squats got our legs big time as well.
Sipa lost his calf in the process on one of the runs. He started limbing because of the cramp. Luckily we had magnesium spray and he was able to continue nicely. We had different weights for different movements. This time we agreed the loads were right were they needed to be.
It took us 17 minutes to complete the kettlebells and runs. Part B initiated right after the work had been completed. This frightened us a little prior to the workout. I thought why the heck did I program this heavy barbell right after intervals.
However, we got this! We won the barbell for sure. We kept the same order on this one. Sipa started, I was second, Toni came third. I felt strong already on the first rep. Took it on the front rack, and bounced it overhead with the same movement, not stopping at any point. Was able to keep this pace throughout the 8 minute time window. I felt like my partners also improved towards the end all the time, and it started to look like a feather in their hands towards the end! We got through 24 rounds + 2 reps. That makes it a total of 74 reps.
Event 2
Event 3.
15min amrap of:
Rope climbs
Grande Finale! We once saw Mikko Salo and Jonne Koski post a workout where they did 30min amrap of rope climbs. That really stuck to my head as we honored their work capacity with my bro. HC Triplet seemed like the perfect place to redeem that promise we made to each other to get after it some day.
The rope was long. A lot longer than I have used to climb in Klaukkala. Well, I have 7.6m rope but the distance to climb is probably 5 meters long. This was probably 7 meter all the way. At first we climbed to 5m (I went to mark it with a tape in the beginning) but at some point I decided to start going all the way to the roof. I still had something in my tank and strength left, and I didn't want that to be the case once HC Triplet Goes Kehä was finished!
It felt super good to climb. And I was very positively surprised how well my body was able to hold on with just short recoveries between climbs. Toni had some issues with his shoulder and had to withdraw at some stage and it was on me and Sipa to finish the 15 minutes. That made the recovery even shorter. Still, we somehow were able to move up and down the rope nicely. I have no idea of the amount of reps we completed. Sipa had an idea of about 20 reps per dude.
These competitions have always been tough as nails for us. Definitely heavy work both physically and mentally. These are written to be tough, and we succeeded in that goal. As we look at this afterwards I got to say some progress has taken place for Sipa, Toni and I. There's no way we could have done this volume in the last Triplet in 2014. Neither did we have the skills back then required in this comp. So it's very uplifting to stop for a while and think how much progress has been made in the past years.
Saturday. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 2 rope climbs, run x meters. PM. Emom x 30. 1st: 15 wb, 2nd: 12 kb swing @ 32kg, 3rd: 14 sandbag ground to shoulder, 4th: 8 ring dips, 5th: rest.
I've been waiting to get my hands on the rope for some time. It was a no-brainer to climb up the tree once we arrived to Klaukkala. Had to do them. There were two sessions on Saturday. Metcon in the morning, and then a slow pace workout in the afternoon in emom style.
Metcon. Result, 5 rounds
15min amrap of:
2 rope climbs
Run x meters
Combination of running and ropes is cool. Get that heart rate up on the run and then rope climbs are bad ass movement that feels tough in pretty much every sense. Two ropes and then run for a distance that I have no idea how far away it was. It took a little less than 3 minutes to finish a round. It stayed consistent throughout the 15 minutes.
This was an amrap which basically ended at 14:41 after I came back from the 5th round. I'm happy on the rope climbs. Didn't have to stop between the reps but just kept gong back for more. Loved this wod.
Couple of hours later I wanted to do something. It turned out to be slow pace workout with low heart rate. Let's say it was more like basic conditioning piece. I had some stuff with me so I wanted to take advantage of them. Hung those Rogue rings on a pull-up bar for dips. My sandbag is also located in Klaukkala normally so I put my hands on that too. Wall ball is always a good choice in my opinion. I've done kettlebell work lately couple of times. This was a nice cool piece in the afternoon.
Friday - Saturday. Metcon, 21-15-9 of: sandbag cleans, sandbag lunges, wall balls. Rope climbs. One mile run with sandbag. Karen.
We spent the past couple of days in the countryside so it was quite obvious it's gonna be more or less outdoor metcons all the way. Had one rest day on the New Year's Eve but then I tried to find some time for rather quick workouts. Weather was snowy and suited very well for training outside.
Metcon.
21-15-9 of:
Sandbag cleans
Sandbag lunges
Wall ball shots
This was an intense one for sure. It was the first time I played around with a new sandbag I got from Toni and couple of colleagues as a farewell present as I changed workplace recently. I went to the store and bought sandpit sand and filled it up with Kari. It says it can be added up to 28kg but it simply wasn't possible. The little bags inside are full and it possibly weighs only about 20 kilos.
Getting it a bit heavier would be great. However, it's definitely not an issue. There are plenty of ways to use this tool. It also helps that there are handles on different sides of the bag. That enables various grips and tosses around. Doing ground-to-shoulder's a good bunch in a row puts breathing heavier. This was a very quick workout. Everything unbroken and without pauses. On the lunges I had the bag on my back. That brought a good pressure on my arms and made my forearms burn somewhat.
Skills.
Rope climbs
Later on we went to goof around with the rope. It's always a hassle to get the rope up on the tree branch so we have been thinking how to get it up and down on the branch without climbing ladders. We finally seemed to get it through. In the middle of the process I took couple of reps rope climbs for fun.
Run.
1 mile sandbag run
This happened on Saturday morning. We were going shopping but I negotiated 15 extra minutes in order to do a metcon. Had no time to think about it so I just grabbed the sandbag and hit it right away without warm-up.
I went back and forth a 200 meter leg of the road. Dropped the bag after every 200 meters because holding it in back rack position started to make my forearms go numb. This was a fun little piece to start the day.
Karen.
150 wall ball shots
In the evening I also had something like 8 minutes spare time left for a workout =) There was Finland's ice hockey game just about to start against Canada. And what a game it was! Under 20 year old world championship game playoffs are going on and this is huge. It was a great game but before it started I grabbed my wall ball and started throwing it against the wall.
I went 20-20-20-20-20-20-15-15 reps to finish Karen. It was more of an emom training. I took 15 breaths in between sets. Didn't have a timer on as I didn't have in any of the workouts. With that said, I worked like the timer was pushing me. No difference there.
Christmas training. We left home the day before Christmas to spend it together with the family. We visited my pops earlier and then drove to Klaukkala to cool down with Pauliina's parents for the past couple of days. Didn't concentrate in writing the blog this time, hopefully you guys survived =)
Thursday.
Rest day
My upper body was jammed from all the training in the week so it was perfect to have a day off at Christmas Eve. It was a "busy" day anyway with all the traditions taking place. It was a spectacular day as the entire rest of the week spending it in the best company.
Friday.
Metcon,
5 rounds of:
3 rope climbs
450m run
It was going to be lots of outdoor activities while being in Klaukkala. I had pretty much every fitness equipment with me in the trunk of the car. Agenda was totally open. I just went by feeling. Friday was a good shoulder burn in the rope climbs. It was awesome to go for them after a long break. Felt great. Kari ran with me on the run. Had to save some gas for the rope climbs.
Saturday.
Every minute on the minute x 10min: 10 thrusters (40kg)
Metcon, 4 rounds of:
16 overhead walking lunges, 40kg
400m run
This was a two-part training session. It was nice to have Kari and Pauliina train with me outdoors at the yard. There were a lot of lunges completed with the trio. My first piece was thrusters at 40kg. Ten reps per set. Didn't have a timer running at all. It was something like one set per 60 or max 90 seconds. It also got to my shoulders finally, and they got nasty.
Right after that I took a metcon with the same barbell, lunging with it overhead. Went 8 steps down, and 8 steps back. Kept the bar overhead all the time. It was strange to turn around having a bar overhead. With this weight it was okay but having more weight might have felt exotic. Running and lunging made my legs burn and breathing go heavy.
Sunday.
Metcon, 5 rounds of:
20 walking lunges, 45kg barbell in back rack
20 kettlebell snatches, 16kg (10/10 per hand)
Wear a 9kg vest
On Sunday I got a chance to go two-a-day. We got snow on the ground on Saturday. It was pretty freaking awesome to train outdoors in this kind of weather. It was sunny, bright and the air was crispy. Great to breath heavily. My butt and quads were sore from training but I guess today made it's last effect on my lower body to break down. In a good way. I like it when it hurts.
I went to 45kg, put the barbell in my back, and lunged for 20 steps / meters. This was a bit longer distance than I'd normally lunge. It was a bit torturing on my butt and legs. The idea was of course to go unbroken, and I did. Kettlebell was light as that was probably the only thing I didn't have with me on this trip. Kari had this one so I wanted to borrow that one for the workout.
It suited well for this metcon. One-hand snatches, 10 with right hand, then 10 reps with left hand. Total of 5 rounds. This really hurt in my legs and made my breathing go heavy. I liked it a lot. There was a mental side of the wod too with the longer distance of the lunges.
Evening session.
Push press 1x8 (73kg). Did 10 reps
Front squat doubles, 7x2 across @ 120kg
Power clean, 5x3 @ 80kg
In the evening we drove home and I went to the gym because there was some work to be done. Purely a barbell session. I had my overhead progress going on and it was time for that final set of 8's today. One set of 8 reps @ 73kg. And there was the permission of going more than 8 reps if possible. Warm-up was 10x40, 5x50, 3x60, 2x70, 1x80kg. That 80kg press was probably the easiest I've done in the past couple of weeks. Then dropped down the only working set. Got 10 reps on that one which pleased me tremendously.
Even though my lower body and especially quads were killing me I wanted to get real squats done. My back prevented to squat in the past week so I missed them a lot. Did some doubles in front squat. Not super heavy. Felt heavier than they looked. Quite solid sets. In the end couple of sets of light power clean triples. Just to get a good touch on the movement.
