Thursday 18.12: Ring skills

Thursday. Ring skills.

Originally this day was scheduled to be some sort of rest day or active rest day. Anyway, light for sure. It's been an eternity since I've last time played around with rings for real so this day seemed like a great idea. Really enjoyed it. However, the morning was the real highlight of this Thursday. Toni turned 30 and we had a surprise party for him at work. We got him the Games standards Rogue Box for present and from the look of this mister's face I suppose he was satisfied on his present =)

Rings.

• Muscle-ups
• Front level progressions
• Back lever progressions
• Skin the cat
• Handstand push-up hold
• Ring dips

After not touching on rings with the intention of completing muscle-ups it was a bit intimidating to go for it. I seriously had my doubts if I would make any rep after such a long pause. On my first try I went over the rings but then for some reason my right hand slid off my body and I fell uncontrolled to the ground. That must have looked crazy as Pauliina was kind of scared for me. Anyway, I realized it was only a technical error and it was a good thing I took another attempt to get over it. Got 5 single reps without problems after all.

Next element was lever progressions, for both front and back levers. I took quite a few attempts and made it easier by bending one leg instead of keeping both legs straight. This is very challenging stuff and I'm very happy on the way I was able to perform. Haven't done these practically at all before.

Couple of sets of skin the cat for shoulder and core strength, and flexibility in shoulders too. It was a bit scary to try the handstand push-ups on rings. It took me couple of attempts before I got my feet up there but once I got it, it was all natural from then on. Felt comfortable in the bottom position but it was too heavy for me to push myself up. I simply couldn't move at all =) Tough as hell. Finally I took some ring dips with the deepest dip ever. It was great to play with the rings!

Monday 20.10: Gymnastics day

Monday. Gymnastics

This was a great training day. For a second I thought it might be a rest day but then again another option hit my mind. Why wouldn't I practice on some skills and keep it light, kind of active recovery style. Well, this wasn't quite that but not that heavy either. I worked on some body control movements and had a blast at the gym!

Great article, guess I should work more on ankle mobility

Gymnastics.

• Ring muscle-ups
• Skin the cat
• Frog stand
• Planche progressions
• Weird breakdance moves

For starters I don't recall when was the last time I did muscle-ups on rings. It was about time! There was some anxiety up in the air when I walked to the gym and realized some work has to be done on the rings. Luckily my skills had not vanished just like that and I was able to hit couple of reps, one double and then singles. Some additional ring skills were ahead of me in the form of skin the cat. It really got to the core and my shoulders felt tight in the end of the motion.

There is something fascinating in human's ability to control his body. I enjoy movements like handstand, hspu's and muscle-ups on pull-up bar and rings. In all of these you need to be aware of how your body works, otherwise it's gonna be no good. It's been ages since I've done any kind of body control moves or poses but every time I do, it's freaking awesome. And because it's been such a long time I realized my skills in controlling body have increased a lot. That was super inspiring!

I did different kinds of static hold positions, don't even know what to call all those moves. There was a colleague of mine who's a dancer to give some additional tips on breakdance style poses. My point is I enjoyed every minute of these bodyweight things and I'd like to witness me doing these more often in the future.

Monday 16.6: Row intervals (5k), ring skills

Monday. Row intervals, 5rds of: 600m moderate, 60sec rest, 100m max effort, 100m easy, 100m max effort, 100m easy. Ring skills in the end.

I've had a lot of barbells or kettlebells in my hands in the past training days so it was good to leave them alone for a day and concentrate in rowing. That is one king movement. This is something a man should have as an element on a weekly basis, rowing intervals. I also took some ring skills after getting my lungs burst out.

Row intervals. Total 5.000m

• 5 rounds of:
• 600m moderate pace (1.45-1.50)
• 60sec rest
• 100m max effort (1.29-1.38)
• 100m easy (2.10-2.15)
• 100m max effort (1.29-1.38)
• 100m easy (2.10-2.15)

This is taken directly from NCLab. That is Norcal Crossfit's site that offers a training plan for crossfit athletes looking to make it to the Games. With that said, you understand their daily workouts are sick. Chris Hinshaw is a remarkable endurance coach for these athletes too. Jason Khalipa, Miranda Oldroyd, Garrett Fisher, Pat Barber and the rest of the crew to mention a couple of names. These guys are something I look up to as athletes. If they publish a run / row / swim / skierg workout you better believe it's gonna kick you in the ass.

I've done couple of these in the past and this was a great one too! I had no doubts at any stage though. There was a 5k total of rowing in 5 cycles of 1.000m distances. What should the pace be like on each of these 3 phases? Hinshaw described it in the workout, I posted a picture of it below. My pace on the 600m row was somewhere between 1.45 and 1.50. The first 1-2 sets were faster, from then on I had to grit my teeth get the digits to stay sub 1.50. But I stayed, a mental decision.

Max effort pace was around one thirty and something. Mostly at around 1.35. In the beginning the pace was about 1.30 and the last round was even sub 1.30. On the easy part I took it very slow, just basically kept moving the boat but there was no ambition to go faster.

The thing in this workout was definitely the 600m row. I was glad every time it was over. It was the only distance after which I got to stand up for a while and reset my mental game. Max efforts were quick so even though it was max effort it wasn't that bad. After these 100m max efforts / easy parts were over there was no rest / recovery but I had to start rowing for that 600m distance again. That really sucked. I decided I'll try to keep the pace at the same level each round and that made me think about a happy place at times.

Ring skills.

• Skin the cat
• Front level progressions

I played around with the rings for a while just for the fun of it. Skin the cats and front level progressions. Those front levels are sick stuff. Can't do them right now because there's lack of proper body control so I took some progressions with one knee tucked in. It was a cool short session with the rings, liked it! Here's a short video of what skin the cat means.

Saturday 25.1: Rings, row, bench, du

Saturday. Ring skills. Metcon, 1.000m row, then 5rds of: 10 bench (80kg), 50 du, then 1.000m row. Time 29min.

It went late in the afternoon before I got a chance to workout. I was on the verge of having a day off but decided otherwise. Or actually I was thinking about taking it easier and maybe do some sort of metcon outdoors with bodyweight and kettlebells. But I changed my mind and hit the road. It was a combination of rowing, heavy-ish bench and double unders.

Ring skills. Just playing with the rings. Tried some muscle-ups, wasn't my day with them though. Then "skin the cat" movement, tried some front / back levers, ring rows to transition, staying inverted. Nothing serious, just wanted to get familiar with the rings with different movements.

Metcon. Time 29min

• 1.000m row, then:
• 5 rounds of:
• 10 bench press (80kg)
• 50 double unders, then:
• 1.000m row

Saturday night at the gym

This was a bit different compared to a "traditional" metcon if you can call any workout traditional. Intentionally I threw more weight on the bench than I knew I would be able to go unbroken. So the difference was that I knew beforehand it's gonna take some time for me to finish those 50 bench @ 80kg. Never done that many reps with that weight. Got to have some weight there though to get better and stronger.

My rowing took me 3.35 on the first kilometer and 3.32 on the last one. Double unders went well! 3 rounds were unbroken, and in addition to that I only did 2 mistakes in total on those 2 sets. One miss on at 48 reps on the first set and one miss on the fourth set if I remember right.

Workout is over

This wasn't that bad on breathing (except for rowing in the end) because I had to cut the bench into pieces. First round was 7+3, then the last 4 rounds were all 4+3+3. Got tougher by the round. It took me some time to walk the pain away between sets. Bench is something where I find it difficult to push through when chest and shoulders get numb when they're feeling tired. Something like clean & jerk you can push through mentally but bench feels different.

I'm glad I was able to perform smoothly throughout the workout, even though the bench took me some time.

We were walking in the woods in the morning with my baby and playing in the snow =)

Thursday 28.2: Step-ups, hspu, t2b

Thursday. Step-ups, handstand push-ups, toes-to-bar & knees-to-elbows.

My plan for Thursday was not to do heavy strength training nor a hard core metcon. This was an easier day for a while. I still wanted to give some pressure on my legs and shoulders. My workout's main ingredient was step-ups with a barbell in my back. I added some spice to it by doing hspu's, T2B's and K2E's between sets. This workout was not for time but for quality, skills and technique.

Step-ups, 90kg

Workout. For quality.

• 10 step-ups, 82.5kg, alternating legs
• Max effort handstand push-ups, 8 reps
• 10 step-ups, 82.5kg, alternating legs
• 10 toes-to-bar + 10 knees-to-elbows, hold on to the grip from start to end
• 10 step-ups, 90kg, alternating legs
• Max effort handstand push-ups, 8 reps
• 10 step-ups, 90kg, alternating legs
• 10 toes-to-bar + 10 knees-to-elbows, hold on to the grip from start to end
• 10 step-ups, 90kg, alternating legs
• Max effort handstand push-ups, 6 reps
• 10 step-ups, 90kg, alternating legs
• 10 toes-to-bar + 10 knees-to-elbows, hold on to the grip from start to end

I began the training session by rowing for a while, opening my hips by squatting with a pvc pipe, doing inverted holds and skin the cat with the rings. Then I took some long sets of back squats and tried to go as deep as possible, over 90 degrees to increase mobility. My sets were around 60-100kg. After getting properly warmed up I took two sets of 60 & 82.5kg step-ups. Why 82.5kg? Because there was another guy doing his squat sets as well so I figured that weight is alright for me as well. After couple of sets I added it to 90kg.

All together I did 6 sets of step-ups with 82.5 - 90kg. Between sets I did something totally else. Every other set was max effort of handstand push-ups (hspu) and every other time I did 20 reps of first 10 T2B and then 10 K2E by holding on to the pull-up bar continuously, not dropping down and adjusting grip in the transition stage.

My handstand push-ups rolled well. On the first set I did 8 reps (PR, previously 6 reps) through kipping method. On the second try I also did 8 reps but I changed the approach so that I tried to do as many reps as possible strict before kipping. I managed to do 6 strict ones, then adding 2 kipping versions to reach a total of 8 reps. On the last one I got 6 total reps (4 strict + 2 kipping).

On the pull-up bar the number of reps was no problem. I believe I'm rather solid with toes-to-bar and knees-to-elbows. It's the grip that sometimes becomes an issue. I decided to do 10 T2B reps, then change it to 10 K2E on the fly with the same grip. A total of 20 reps. It was nice to do these two movements, it's been some time since previous reps. This was the first time there was 90kg on the step-ups and it felt just fine in my back.

My training partner Toni took a rest day. In the evening I'll have some floorball with my team.

Friday 1.2: Skills day

Friday. Skills oriented day. Plenty of different movements.

It's been quite a week after Barbara, Isabel, squats and cleans so today's goal was to take it a bit easier. Well, my shoulders and hands got to test today anyway as I was like a little boy when playing with the rings. They were my focus area but I also did other skills training.

Ring skills.

• Invert hold
• Skin the cat
• Levers
• Ice cream makers
• Ring push-ups

It's simply fun! Play with the rings. Probably should play a little more to someday master the muscle-up as well. I took a few sets of inverted holds, skin the cat, levers and one set of ice cream makers. To the end 3x15 ring push-ups.

Other skills.

• Double unders
• Chest-to-bar pull-ups
• Handstand hold
• Handstand push-ups (max PR 6 reps)
• One-handed push-ups
• Pistols

It was awesome to see I was able to hit my chest to the bar with pull-ups. It's been hard previously. I thought it would be more difficult but it actually touched the bar. Yeah baby, it inspired me to practice them more in the future. Handstand was another area where I wanted to put effort today. I wanted to break that old record of handstand push-ups so I added one rep to the old PR. Took some other sets as well. A newcomer was one-handed push-ups, positively surprised that I got them on the first try =)

Take a look at one of my training partner's show of one-handed push-ups.

One-handed push-ups, Anton

Friday 21.12: Mobility and skills

Friday. Mobility and skills.

Today I wanted to go for clean and jerk as strength training. I was a bit afraid how my elbows would react and they started to scream in the early steps of my training session so I had to skip that and concentrate in taking it easier and save my elbows for the following days. Toni also took it light today. However, at the end he rowed fast and PR'd his 2k row with over 40 seconds.

My movements.

• Row 1k. Time 3.28
• Clean & jerk
• Shoulder press
• Handstand
• Ring skills
• Skin the cat
• GHD sit-ups 3x30

Toni's workouts. Terchnique and skills, row 2k for time (7.15, PR).

• Handstand push-ups
• Ring push-ups
• Ring dips
• Kipping pull-ups
• Overhead squats
• Row 2k, time 7.15

Toni's previous 2k record was 7.56, today it turned to 7.15.

2k row ahead

After 2k

Thursday 6.12: Row, back squat, snatch, ring skills

Thursday. Row 2k, time 7.01 (PR). Back squat x 4 (max 120kg), snatch x 4 (max PR 45kg). Ring skills 20min.

Finnish Independency Day. I was ready to do work at the gym. For the sake of this day I took 2k row for time, back squat strength training, snatch training and finally ring skills. It was a long day at the gym and I've earned my meals for today. Toni took a day off today. Joni worked his ass off.

2k row, 7.01, PR

Row 2k. Rowing long distances with quick pace can be very demanding and exhausting experiences. This was exactly that. Luckily I've rowed quite much in the last 1-2 months. My warm-up traditionally includes 1k row and I usually tend to go fast the whole trip. Today I started off with 1.40 / 500m pace and kept it for some time. After 1k it was around 1.45-1.47 / 500m and due to my sprint at the end the clock stopped at 7.01. I really felt the burden in my lungs. It took some time to catch my breath and my thighs were burning. When I took my first strokes some months ago, the burden usually hit my forearms first and they went almost numb in mid-long distances. After having rowed so much - I suppose tens of kilometers - I have learnt to focus the stress to my legs. Nowadays the fatigue hits my legs and lungs first. This has also enabled me to row faster.

Strength. Back squat fours and snatch fours.

• Back squat 4-4-4-3 (100, 110, 115, 120)
• Snatch 4-4-4-1 (40, 42.5, 42.5, PR 45kg)

My goal was to go fours all the way to 120kg. I missed with one rep. I wanted to take 4-rep sets all the way. You'll find the videos in my Youtube channel. I've changed the way I warm-up when doing strength workouts. Previously I did rather many sets of warming up with lighter weights. If we think about back squats, 5-rep sets of 60, 70, 80, 90kg were normal for me before going over hundred kilos. After talking with some monsters who lift heavy weights I understood there's no point exhausting your body (20 plus reps) before reaching those weights you really want to focus on. That's why I take several reps with empty bar, then some reps with maybe 60kg and then start putting 100+ weights. I feel my body is more receptive for those heavier kilos nowadays.

I played with empty bar and barbell with 30kg for some time with snatches. I practiced the tracks with power snatch and squat snatch. Then I finally took those 4-rep sets and was able to increase the number of plates and weights. I still recognize the flaws of my technique but it feels difficult to correct them individually. I can lift 40kg but going beyond it would require good technique which I'm lacking. Today was the first time I was able to go further, two sets of 4x42.5kg came up and finally a single rep of 45kg.

Snatch, 42.5kg

Ring skills. For 20 minutes. I played with the rings, took some muscle-up training with the help of jumping from the ground, skin the cat became familiar movement as well. I've never done ice-cream makers before, today I did 5x10 reps. I also did some inverted hang. All in all, it was 20+ minutes to play around.



Toni had a rest day but I slapped high fives with Joni as he entered the gym when I was leaving. He did two quick and heavy workouts, goo job man!

• 10-8-6-4-2
• Deadlift (100kg)
• Bench press (60kg)
• Time 5.29

His second workout was Grace with 50kg, time 4.37

Take a look at a documentary of Annie Thorisdottir, fittest woman alive, for the second consecutive years. I had to grab my stuff and head to the box right after this

Fittest woman in the world, Annie Thorisdottir

Thursday 1.11: Bench press + ring skills + metcon

Thursday. Row 1k time 3.28, bench press 6x3 (max PR 80kg), ring skills, metcon 2 rounds of 50 hand release push-ups, 50 DUs and 50 sit-ups, time 7.54.

I took off by rowing 1k, I pushed myself to the edge, there might be some occasional seconds taken off but that's pretty much the limit. That speed is 1.44 / 500m. For 500m I have rowed 1.40 but never tried to keep that pace for 1.000m. That means 1k would be 3.20 if the pace would remain the same. Anyway, today's agenda was to go for bench press and bench press only, for strength. Additionally I wanted to utilize the rings and do some skills training there. Finally my metcon included push-ups, double unders and sit-ups. I wanted to make my triceps scream and succeeded in that! Pauliina is visiting home for a few days and today she joined me at the box. She did her own program and tried the rings as well.

Strength. 3-3-3-3-3-2 (60, 70, 75, 75, PR 77.5, PR 80kg). I did well today and I'm proud of it. I've tried bench press for a few times and my previous record is 75kg. I've never tried heavier weights. My goal today was to reach 80kg and luckily I got there. Starting from 60kg, moving up to 70 and 75kg. Pauliina said it came rather easily and had the opinion that more kilos should be added so why not? I added 2.5kg first and as it came up 3 times, I decided to round it up to 80kg. Two reps went ok but she had to assist me with the third one. It's nice to see I can lift more than my bodyweight (77kg). By the way, I've gained extra 1-2 kilos as I started my eating process a 1-2 weeks ago, nice! My energy consumption is huge so I must also eat huge loads. Three warm meals is minimum amount for me in a day, in addition to everything extra that goes down my system.

Ring skills. Those rings are simply awesome! I took some ring pull-ups with false grip, it feels a bit awkward to do them but definitely helps in doing muscle-ups, sometime in the future. Pauliina inspired me to do some inverted holds and "skin the cat" as well. Those ring are very helpful to play with. And you can really make some moves to make your abs and shoulders beg for mercy. Doing them also increases mobility, especially in the shoulder area.

Metcon. Hr push-ups, double unders and sit-ups, total of 300 reps. Time 7.54

• 2 rounds of
• 50 hand release push-ups
• 50 double unders
• 50 sit-ups

The purpose of this workout was to put my triceps and chest to the limits. Total of 300 reps, 50 hand release push-ups, double unders and old school sit-ups for two rounds. Clearly, push-ups were the toughest. On the first round I did 30 in a row, then I took 10 and 5+5. On the second round my push-ups were done in small bits, something like 10+10 and then fives till the end. My triceps were pushed to the stage of going numb so I couldn't do them more in a row.

My double unders were perfect, both times unbroken! C'mon, that seems to be the new trend. This is very promising, it's not long ago as I still had some problems with them. That encourages me to do all other skill type of exercises such as headstand, handstand, muscle-ups. Just keep on practicing and some day you'll master them! Sit-ups in this metcon went naturally unbroken as well. This workout was a good one and worked exactly as I wanted. My triceps and chest need to be worked on more in the future. This day was a good step towards that goal.