Sunday. AM: Yard work for hours. PM: Sandbag run uphill
It was definitely a taxing day. After breakfast we went to the front yard as there were a lot to be done with the yard. I was shoveling dirt and mud all day with Kari. It took us hours to complete. I was sweating like a pig as the weather was hot. Lately it's been the hottest days of this summer in Finland. In the evening I was pretty much done and ready to go to bed and sleep for 12 hours but that hill which can be seen from the front yard had been tempting me for the entire day.
Metcon. Took about 7 minutes in total
Run up the hills of Tornikeskus with a sandbag
As I had been warming up already for the entire day doing various physical activities I just picked up a sandbag and went running with it. Destination was on top of the hill. I ran from home, thought about taking a break below the hill and then head up. When I reached my destination I decided to just keep going up the hill.
I'm extremely happy I was able to keep my legs churning all the way to the top. Never had to stop to breath or give my legs some rest. When I climbed up, it felt like I'd like to drop the bag, and take a short recovery. That thought stayed there for the latter half of the uphill run. However, I was able to push that thought aside and keep going. Kari joined me on this journey and came up as well. Thumbs up for this fella!
Saturday. Pair wod, 15min amrap of sandbag run, s2o and pistols. Result, 7 rounds.
It was one and done on that day. My pal Antti who also lives in Klaukkala joined me for a metcon so it turned out to be a pair workout. Sandbag, barbell and bodyweight.
Metcon. Result, 7 full rounds
15min amrap of:
One athlete runs with a sandbag for 200m
In the meanwhile the other does 15 s2o @ 30kg, and amrap of pistols
This was a great workout for sure! Thanks Antti for throwing down with me. The point was that I started with the run portion. Took the sandbag on my back and went down and back the park. During that time Antti did push presses for 10 reps and the rest of my run time he went for pistol squats. Once I came back from the run I did 15 s2o's and pistols for as many reps as possible during his sandbag sprint.
The sandbag started to feel nasty on back and put a lot of pressure on breathing. Barbell was light but that's why there were quite a bunch of reps per round. Got those unbroken and then finished each round with pistol squats. It was awesome when my training partner suggested we'd do these. It's not self-evident that people can smash them, and Antti had perfect mobility and leg strength to work it up and down just like that. I got 10 reps per round.
Those dumbbells that I bought couple of months ago have really paid off. The benefits have been huge. Working outdoors is easy when you have those little bastards with you. On Monday morning I combined sandbag and dumbbells for a 10-rounder.
Sandy is probably only somewhere at 20 kilos so lifting it ground-to-shoulder wouldn't be that bad but running with it is nasty for sure. I grabbed the bag, went down the road and back. Distance was somewhere around 40-50m, some decline on the way down and incline on the way back.
Those burned my legs and put breathing go heavy. I had a strategy of dropping the bag, walking to the dumbbell and start snatching. Once I reached the db, I was forced to take the first rep right away. Six reps at right hand, then change. Focus on all the metcons the last couple of days has been on keeping myself moving.
Metcon.
3k run
10 rounds of Cindy (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats)
3k run
Because of our little newborn, the warm-up and cool-down parts have been quite short the past days =) On this one I figured running on the first round would work as a warm-up. Took it easy in the very beginning, then sped up especially on the latter run portion.
It was surprising how difficult the pull-ups turned out to be. Went strict with them. Also squats were a good battle. Breathing was heavy almost all the time.
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.
Wednesday. Back squat 7x3 (across 120kg). Metcon, with a running clock for 15min, 5x3min amrap. 300m row, then amrap of squat clean (70kg) for remaining time. Result, total of 44 cleans. PM: Metcon, 5rds of: 15 t2b, 200m sandbag run, 30 air squat. Skills, bar mu's. Metcon, 3k run.
What a great training day! Woke up, and wanted to go swimming but it was raining so I ate breakfast and got ready for a gym session. First time after the vacation my legs were feeling good. Originally I had planned to squat today but I thought my lower body wouldn't agree on that plan. Luckily it was a good day, so I smashed my legs. In the evening I went outdoors with a sandbag.
Warm-up.
4 rounds of:
3 bar muscle-ups
10 overhead squat with a narrower grip
This week I've done different types of warm-ups, changing from the routines. It's been kb's and du's, turkish get-ups, muscle-ups and overhead squats. Something I feel like needs to be worked on. So in this portion I'll do those with quality, and trying to modify technique a bit. Muscle-ups felt great, and it was a positive surprise to be able to do ohs with narrower grip than normally. This might be the thing to better shoulder mobility.
Strength.
Back squat 7x3 (across, 120kg)
I took only light squats last Saturday but those ones murdered my lower body for days. It really felt I haven't done work with weights in about 2 weeks. That was the longest break of training in my crossfit history, probably in my life. It was just light work during the trip.
Now I've had the possibility to sleep and recover well as I'm returning to work only next week. This week is dedicated to training. Today's agenda was triples for a total of seven sets, and I kept the weight at the same load, 120kg each set. Felt a bit stiff for some reason, even though overhead squats felt super good and I was able to sit very comfortable in the bottom. Towards the end hips got better.
Squat recap
Metcon.
With a 15min running clock:
Every 3 minutes complete:
300m row + amrap squat clean (70kg)
This was a nightmare. I was very anxious before putting the clock running. It was obvious it's gonna hurt. This is basically five 3-min amraps with no rest between sets. Every amrap begins with 300m row, and then you have that about 2 min time to work on the cleans. Do them as squat cleans to make it hurt more. I got the inspiration from Ben Bergeron's site competitorswod.com. When I came home I noticed it was supposed to be 200m row instead of 300m but that didn't matter. It was tough.
On the first round I did 10 reps, and realized if I'm gonna keep this pace on the cleans I'm gonna be in big trouble. On the following rounds I completed 8 reps for the next 3 rounds. Last round it was 10 reps again. There was enough time to do 10 reps each round but the feeling was disgusting. I had something like half a minute extra time after those 8 reps but I used the time to give my legs a bit of rest and adjusted the plates / collars back to the barbell. I did singles and the collars were bouncing back and forth. This was one of the worst workouts in a while. It took a while to get back to this planet earth. Afterwards I foam rolled a lot to massage the entire body.
Stage for the metcon, Concept2 and barbell
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
15 toes-to-bar
200m sandbag run, 25kg
30 air squat
In the evening I went to Pirkkola. It was devastating that they had torn the place up. I had wall ball and Sandy with me as I thought about doing a combination of wb's, sandbag run and something with the pull-up bar. My mind was blown as I saw there was no wb station anymore and the place was totally under construction. I gathered my thoughts and came up with this metcon. It was a very good breather!
I've never done any kind of runs with a sandbag. It was a 200m run with a 25kg "Sandy". I tried different styles of carrying it. On some rounds it was on my back, and on some rounds it was on either my left or right shoulder. Don't know which one felt better so I kept changing it. This one really brought the heart rate up better than I expected.
T2b's were ub for the first round, then I broke it into 10-5 for the remaining rounds. It mostly got to my grip. Air squats are always surprisingly burning on the legs when you throw a good bunch of them. They were intentionally right after the sandbag run which definitely had an effect on the squats. Good metcon!
Evening recap
Skills.
Bar musle-ups
The pull-up bar that I found there was high enough so it was a good place to hone on the bar mu skills. I took couple of sets so that today's total figure climbed to somewhere about 20 reps. I tried to swing my legs behind the vertical line on the pull-up bar.
Metcon.
Run 3.000 meters
At first this was supposed to be a recovery run but after the first round I paced up and ended up having cramps on both of my quads so it definitely got to a good workout in the end. Normally I really don't like running, especially as a unilateral element. As one part of a metcon it's a great one. But just running, that's a bit boring. Today it felt very good. My body was feeling fresh despite all the work begin done in the past days.
Towards the end it took its toll and brought the cramps. I had trouble to walk to the water station about 200m away from the track. Had to stop 3 times and go to squat as it released the tension in the quads. Once I got my recovery shake, it eased immediately. I drank one liter right away. Recovery back home was a lot of food, sauna and cold treatment for the legs in shower.
Monday. AM: Working out at Liikuntamylly. Skills, handstand. Couple of clean & jerks (60-80kg). Benchmark workout Grace. Time 2.50. PM: Sandy action.
I'm on a holiday this week. Didn't use much of my leave last summer so I've had the possibility to take some time off of work and focus on training. That gives me a possibility to train at these magnificent places in the morning times. After a Super Bowl night, after sleeping all 3 hours I gave Pauliina a ride to work and went directly to Liikuntamylly, my favorite place as an athlete. It was time to take a nap and do another workout in the evening with a sandbag at our backyard.
Skills.
Handstand
This skills movement is sick, I love it. When you give me the possibility to do it, I'll do it. It felt like my body was very tired in the morning but once I got to go inverted it was getting better. First I did some handstand hold, trying got stay as firm and balanced, having my legs together pointing in the air. Then I practiced the handstand walk. It went okay. Was able to stay still pretty well and move forward as planned.
Grace. Time 2.50
Benchmark workout
30 clean & jerks, 60kg
This workout is something sacred for me. Grace and Fran, 2 of the most classic and prestigious workouts that come to my mind when you talk about benchmark workouts in crossfit. They both make me nervous like nothing else. They are cruel workouts. Quick ones, it should always be an all-in effort from the very first rep. There's short amount of repetitions and no excuses to keep rest periods. I've been working my ass off to get strength in my shoulders in order for this 60kg weight to being something I'd be able to manhandle every time I touch the barbell.
Both of these benchmarks should be repeated once in a while in order to see whether development has taken place. This test of an athlete's muscle endurance is brutal and it got me nervous for a reason. Still, I was able to smash this one. I was hoping to get a PR from my previous time of 3.48. But never in my dreams did I see this time coming, a new record with a time of 2.50! That was sick, I'm on cloud number 9 right now for the performance I was able to do =)
I didn't quite know what kind of tactic to use on this one. Thought 6 sets of 5 reps would make it nicely if I'd do one set per 30 seconds for as long as possible. That would make it to 3:00 exactly. However, on the first set I already changed my strategy on the fly and completed 6 reps. On my 10sec break I thought to change it to 5 sets of 6 reps. On the second set I felt like I had unbalanced grip so I dropped the bar after 3 reps, readjusted and took another 3 reps. I was at 12 reps.
After another 10sec break I was looking to get another 6 reps. No way man. I took 3 reps in a row, break and another 2 reps, total of 17 reps. From there on I decided to throw those strategies in to trash bin and as Jason Khalipa says it: "throw balls to the wall". Just close your mindset and give your everything. The bar felt very heavy after 19 reps and that might be seen from my face also from the video. Each rep hurt in my shoulders and legs. Grace has never felt this bad on my thighs, they were burning in a smilier was as my shoulders.
It was a totally different ball game to complete Grace here in Liikuntamylly where you can drop bar compared to my home gym. You save tons of energy by dropping the bar instead of bringing it down gently. Of course you can go faster by doing touch'n'go reps but once you're hammered already, you simply can't do multiple reps. Afterwards, I realized it was a good strategy drop the bar after 20 reps every time I got a rep and grab the bar right away.
I was super stoked after I saw the time after the 30th rep. Probably my best performance every, the improvement was such great compared to last Grace. This one took all my energy and I was left with nothing in the tank. I hung around in Liikuntamylly for a while and stretched before going home for a lunch and a nap.
Sandy-metcon.
4 rounds of:
20 walking lunges with a sandbag, 25kg
20 strict press with a sandbag, 25kg
I thought another metcon is about to happen. Thought about what elements to utilize at our backyard. I have some stuff in the storage: kettlebells, weighted vest and self-made sandbag. Decided to go with the sandbag, a.k.a. Sandy.
Didn't want it to be an extremely long one so while I was warming up I came up with a simple workout: 10 walking lunges, then turn and complete the same steps back to starting point. Followed by 20 strict press with the sandbag. Those presses killed my shoulders! Even though the weight wasn't heavy, the odd object element might have made a difference.
I went unbroken on the strict presses for 2 rounds. On the last 2 rounds it was 15+5 and 12+8. Lunges went ub all rounds. It was a good evening workout to get some body fluids flowing. Now I'm gonna just eat for the rest of the evening and get ready for tomorrow's workouts. I'm eager to hear how Toni demolishes Crossfit Total at his Box today!
Saturday. Metcon, 5 rounds of 20m sandbag lunges (25kg), 20 kettlebell presses (20kg). Time 7.54.
We are having a family gathering today at the country side so there was no time to hassle my way to the Box. Instead, after breakfast took the opportunity to work at my back yard. Decided to work with some equipment from my warehouse: sandbag and kettlebell.
Metcon. Time 7.54
5 rounds of:
20m sandbag lunges, 25kg sandbag
20 kettlebell presses, 20kg bell
It was a good breather. Had no problems in performing the movements but they surely made me breath heavily. Just the way I liked it. Quite a quick workout, less than 8 minutes but all the time doing work. Entire body got its share today. Lunges for lower body and bell presses for upper body. Take a look below. Now I'm gonna leave to see all of Pauliina's relatives.
Remember to stay tuned at games.crossfit.com to see the entire action of the Reebok 2013 Crossfit Games, it's on! Two days are gone, two ahead, don't miss a single workout, it's been freaking awesome!!!
Yesterday's game was tough physically as the opponent was clearly ahead of our team so there was a lot of action at our side of the court. Sitting in a bus after the game and arriving home late means to say my body wasn't at its best today. I still managed to pull out a proper clean and jerk strength training. Pauliina came with me to train. Toni did some bodyweight workouts at home environment.
This setup was my plan from the very beginning. I had thought about the weights and rep-sets in advance and was able to stick to the plan. Only in the first set of 80kg my jerk failed, other than that everything went as planned. I believe my clean has developed a lot this year and technique is way better than before. Still there's a lot to be done, no doubt about it but it's getting much better than before. Last week's workout boosted my confidence as I was able to hang squat clean 70kg several times in that EMOM workout.
Clean & jerk, 80kg
I believe I should keep those old school shoulder press and push press strength workouts in my calendar as I believe that press / jerk part is a bit difficult nowadays. My max is at 85kg but doing reps with 80kg have been quite challenging lately. I jerked / pressed them up today but they won't come as easy as I hoped. I have some plans to improve in this area.
After having done the c&j's I took some extra reps in clean and tried to set a new record. I've done cleans mostly as power versions but my goal is to make my body learn to squat clean with heavy weights. Last week I did it with 70kg, today I tried with 80kg. It wasn't that natural but just some more repetitions and I'll be ok with squat clean, I strongly believe. Then I'm aiming for heavier weights.
Clean, 80kg
Toni's workouts. Time about 12 min.
4 rounds of
30 lunges, "sandy" in his back, 25kg
30 push-ups
double unders until his training partner finished his lunges
He did this workout outdoors, the number of double unders remain a mystery. In addition he did 4x5 handstand push-ups. Take a look at Sandy workout at HC Triplet to refresh your memory =)
Self made 25 kg sandbag, stuffed inside three massive refuse sacks and sealed with 50 meters of duck tape =D Doing this sandbag was a wod in itself, we were both exhausted after finishing the sandbag. It was quite an operation...
