Thursday. AM: Snatch technique (7x5 @ 40kg). PM: Back squat emom (up to 142.5kg). Metcon, 10 to 1, down by 1's of: pull-ups and burpees. Time, 5.13
Had to wake up rather early today because we are leaving to the country side to meet the in-laws for Easter. I needed to get two sessions in and there was also a barber shop visit ahead of me so this was the earliest training sessions I had in Eltsu this morning. It was all about snatches. In the afternoon I went to pick up my lady from work and stayed there to strengthen my legs and do a quick intense cardio workout.
Snatch.
Technique
7x5 squat snatch (all sets @ 40kg)
Purpose was not go heavy. My warm-up was long, probably took a good half an hour before my first set at 40kg. Snatch as squat version requires a lot of mobility and I won't take it for granted. I'm not that flexible and elastic that I could do it right away. Need to get my hips and shoulders work together for this goal. The path to this is warming up a lot.
I used just empty barbell for some time for power snatches, squat snatches, overhead squats, snatch balances. Plus took quite a lot of mobility time before laying my hands on the barbell in the first place. Finally I got to the point of putting some plates on the bar. One set at 30kg, then 40kg for the remaining of the sets.
I had huge desire to keep on piling stuff on the bar but that was not going to be the case today. I wanted to work on my snatch mechanics, building awareness of how the bar should travel and learn my body how it should move on this very complex movement.
This session went great in my opinion. Comparing to my own level, these snatches were pretty good. Mobility is crucial thing in this one, I'll keep on improving that one in order to make snatches easier. Gotta have mobility, speed, strength. In that order. That's what the legendary Coach - Mike Burgener - says. And it's not difficult to agree on this statement.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute
Back squat
1-3min: 3x110kg
4-6min: 2x120kg
7-11min: 1x130, 135, 140, 142.5, 145f
In the afternoon my goal was to strengthen my legs. Yesterday was front squat, today was gonna be back squats. Idea was similar. Emom workout, add weight, drop reps. Started with 110kg for triples, then 120kg for doubles. These were light. Then it was all singles from there on. One rep every minute until failure. The wall came at 145kg. Recovery became an issue there. My legs were getting jello at 140kg, and the one after that was tough. Thus, it was too challenging this time to get 145kg up. Felt awesome to back squat!
Metcon. Time, 5.13
10 to 1, down by 1's of:
Pull-ups
Burpees
Once I sat on the barber shop chair, this came to my mind. Old classic. I used to combine these two movement couple of times in different combinations. It has always sucked big time. Today was no exception. This combo meant that you complete 10 reps of both elements, then 9 reps, 8-7-6…. until 1 rep.
The rounds of 9-8-7 are the worst. Especially the 9's and 8's. I tried to keep a good pace from the very beginning without stopping too much between sets. This made even my stomach ache. It was hurting big time in lats, shoulders, and core. Breathing was heavy obviously all the time.
It helped mentally at the round of 6's because the amount was getting smaller every round. I wanted these sets to be unbroken and got them. That wasn't actually an issue at any time. I was just afraid that it might become if I gassed too much. Luckily everything went well. Very good, short and intense workout to seal the day!
It was Super Bowl Sunday so I had to watch the game! It's broadcasted in Finland in the middle of the night, the game started at 01.30 am and ended at about 5.00 in the morning. Had time to sleep 2+ hours before the game and couple of hours afterwards. I went to work later than normally but for this reason I decided to lay low this Monday. By the way, it was a heck of a game!
Snatch work.
Power snatch
Overhead squat
Snatch balance
Sotts press from back rack
Sotts press from front rack
Mobility
It turned out to be much greater day than I had anticipated. I thought it would be very small gains but I had a training partner with me that has probably the best mobility in this entire country. I admire his elasticity a lot. He suggested we'd work on some oly stuff with barbell only. At first I wasn't that much into it because I had thought about rowing more today but luckily I jumped aboard.
I worked with hang power snatch but mostly on overhead squats and snatch balance. I did enormous amount of reps and went all the way to the bottom position. Between sets I did mobility drills Benjamin suggested and I felt the change right away. Doing ohs and snatch balance after those mobility workouts it was like my shoulders had been replaced with someone else's. It was awesome to hit bottom position with armpits pointing forward much more easily than regularly.
Gotta work these mobility things on a regular basis. I do mobility every evening anyway so just add some new stuff there. In the end I stretched my legs a lot, and felt very good exiting the gym to the sauna.
Sunday. Ring skills. Technique, clean pulls & snatch pulls. Workout, emom for 20min. Odd min, 5 power clean, even min, 30du.
Lighter day, for a while. Concentrated in skills and technique. Ring mu progressions for some time, then pulls on cleans and snatches, trying to find a good spot for the "bounce". Finally I took a workout with light cleans and double unders, for technique and skills.
Ring skills. Ring muscle-up progressions
10 sets of 2 ring rows + 1 transition
Ring mu attempts
I want to be better at muscle-ups, both bar and ring versions. Need to be working harder on those. More frequently and more progressions. Got to be doing pull-ups higher than normally: chest-to-bar's and belly-to-bar's. I can nail bar mu's always when I try them but I want to make them more effortless. Want the pull-up be so high I don't have to struggle on the transition stage. Same with the ring mu's, or actually even more. There have been some days I haven't got any reps even though I've tried them multiple times. Today was one of them.
That's why I'm gonna do more of progressions for full reps. I've checked Austin Malleolo's muscle-up drills video for couple of times and tried to absorb the tips he's given. I did 10 sets of a ring row slash transition complex It looks so easy when you look at someone else do it but when you hold the rings with a false grip it immediately feels heavier. The grip is not comfortable at all but is kind of mandatory, at least in the beginning. In case I would be able to pull myself higher, false grip would not be needed anymore. That's what I've learned.
These sets were very good drills to get better at ring mu's. Need to be doing more of these.
Recap
Technique. Numerous sets of:
Clean pulls
Snatch pulls
50kg barbell
Toni has been giving some tips for me on my oly lifts, or to be more specific, my pulls on clean and snatch. The spot where I bounce the bar from my thighs is somewhere on my mid-thighs which is way too low. Being able to locate the bar higher - "on the pocket" - would create more power on the pull and the bar would travel in a more vertical path upwards. It would also help to on the landing position as I wouldn't be jumping forward on the heavier weights.
So we've been trying to spot the bar higher when we have trained together. Today I put only 50kg on the bar and focused on completing better pulls. And once I was concentrating on this, I believe I was able to get it higher. But it needs lots of thought because otherwise I'll get back to my old habits of bouncing it from too low. I worked on both clean and snatch pulls.
Workout. For technique
Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes
Odd minutes, 5 power cleans, 50kg
Even minutes, 30 double unders
This workout was light in nature. There were a good number of clean pulls and I wanted to get some full reps technique-wise too. No surprise that my focus was on pulling the bar from as high as possible. Toni I need you to give some thoughts on my performance on the pulls and power cleans.
Double unders were okay. Not perfect though but still okay. Couldn't go unbroken. As you see my first reps tend to suck compared to the ones from 5-rep on. My body bends too much in the first reps and I have to bend my knees too. After couple of jumps I get a hold on the movement and it feels much better. At that point I get a good confidence on the jumping too. Still need to be doing more work on the form.
Another great day! It was no surprise to me beforehand. I was about to meet Toni @ Liikuntamylly, our favorite venue for training. It's usually a place where PR's are born. Today was no exception. I wasn't looking for them but Toni was aggressively after overhead squat records and he made the old one look light. There was plenty of work being done in the morning time. Skills, strength, technique and benchmark wod. We were totally done after Nancy. In the afternoon I went to pick Pauliina from work and decided to do some rowing intervals.
Toni snatching
Skills. Handstand. For me it seems odd that having a long break of handstand training in the autumn time has done good things to my skills. Today I was able to stay inverted longer than ever plus the distance I was able to handstand walk was clearly a PR. It just feels good being upside down. And the platform at this place for practicing this particular skills is perfect. It's made for running, like a track and field type of platform. I couldn't imagine a more suitable ground for handstand skills training.
Handstand skills training
Strength. Overhead squats 3-3-3-3-3 across (60kg). I'm having troubles to workout in a place where I could drop barbells from overhead position so every time I'll get a chance to come here in Liikuntamylly or the cave in Eltsu you'll see me do some sort of overhead movements or olympic lifting. I had predetermined the weights I'm gonna use today. When I've done ohs strength sets, they have always been at 50kg. I wanted to take this to next level and hit 60kg on the bar. My current max is at 70kg so this weight is something where I have to concentrate a lot.
Toni working on his HS
Toni was giving me tips throughout the session. He just completed the L1-trainer's course at Tampere and was being guided with bad ass coaches around the world. Let's mention Jami Tikkanen for instance, a Finnish legend from Crossfit Thames, London. Anyways, Toni was putting effort in my form, having back in correct line, having a tight midline, having my knees pointed out all the time and sitting below parallel. Thanks for the tips Toni!
Handstand walk
It felt very good being able to handle that 60kg good enough. At points I forgot to listen to Toni's hints so my form wasn't great. Still, it was manageable. I'll have to do more work on my mobility in order to being able to narrow my hands on the bar. My grip is as wide as it could possibly be. Have to pay attention to all those tips I've read from the professionals, Chad Vaughn is the first guy that pops in to my mind.
Toni did something like 3x50, 2x60, 1x60, 1x65, 1x70 PR. He also pressed 75kg up but his stomach was already full from the record that the squat part failed to complete. Congrats on the PR!
Recap of ohs & snatch
Technique. Snatch. After having done ohs we moved on to learning things on snatch. We put a lot of effort on the starting position, first pull, high pulls, and some squat snatches as well. This was more like a snatch clinic, not strength training. Max weight must have been 40kg that we fooled around with. It was a very good session and I understood some issues from the starting position and the way my knees should behave on the first pull. Once again, because of my training partner.
Toni's snatch clinic
Nancy.
5 rounds of:
400m run
15 overhead squats, 40kg
Uuh… It was tough. These two elements we are talking about - running and overhead squats - are my weaknesses. That's how I feel the game. So it was crucial to finally do this benchmark wod. I thought it would become an issue with the overhead squats because there were gonna be 75 reps in total! Well, it turned out I was managing it unbroken up to 72 reps. At the 13th rep on the last set it was too much to handle for my shoulders and it started to fall back. I corrected it too much and it fell forward.
The way I performed on this one was something beyond my expectations. In my own opinion, I did it great considering these definitely aren't my strong areas as a crossfitter. That's also why I enjoyed this so much that it's a high-rep workout. Just like yesterday when I did 60 reps clean& jerk with 60kg. It's important to have that muscle endurance and being able to keep going no matter what happens.
First 10min of Nancy
I don't pay attention that much on the time of the workout because we were doing this together with Toni with one barbell only. And there were times where we were both simultaneously at the bar so there were some time lost waiting for your own turn. It took about 18min with everything included. It was a cool workout in a sense that after running I didn't have to stop and gasp for air but I was able to grab the bar - if it was free - and start doing the reps. My third round was faster than the second and fourth was faster than the third. First round was 3:00 and the rest of them were about 3:30 if done without interruptions.
It was a very good training session! There happened to be other crossfitters as well in the morning. There was one guy having same Rogue shirt as I and another dude having same L1-coach shirt as Toni so that was kind of amusing =) We talked about technique and mobility for some time with the guys and I got to keep on digging to this area.
Intervals. Distance 3.424m
Row
30sec on, 30sec off for 20min
1min rest after 10min
In the afternoon I went to pick Pauliina up from work and we headed directly to the gym. My role there was to do interval rowing and lots of mobility. That classic 30sec on and 30sec off material was on the board again, it's been months since last time. My ass tends to get numb rowing at full speed so I took a 1min break after 10min. My pace was 1.31-1.36 all the way, mostly at 1.33 / 500m. I consider that a rather fast speed for me but that's what this workout is all about: going all in every set. Took lots of overhead squats with narrower grip, tried some sots press and finally foam rolled my thighs a lot, stretching as well.
Wednesday. AM: Build up to 12rep deadlift in 15min (max 140kg). Metcon, 4rds of 15box and 10 T2B. Time 4.40. Squat snatch technique. PM: Handstand / headstand skills training.
A little different type of strength training for this Wednesday. High-rep sets of deadlifts, aiming to find a 12-rep max set in a certain time domain. Then a bodyweight metcon and some technique training. Pony is enjoying his summer holiday and stayed home to train at his back yard.
Strength.
Deadlift
Build up to 12 rep max in 15min
Sets: 100, 110, 120, 130, 140kg
Had to check from my blog when was the last time I did deadlifts. It was actually about 3 weeks ago when I was on a date with benchmark wod Diane. And there was another metcon where I combined deads and box jumps, that was phenomenal workout. Today's workout was a copy paste stuff from Rob Orlando's workout of the day some time ago.
Usually my deadlift sets are around 3-5 reps when concentrating in developing strength. This was a nice variation to that rep-scheme. Doing 12 repetitions in a row is a totally different thing as grip starts to become challenging after about 8 reps. Those early sets were easy. The last 2 sets (130 and 140kg) were tough on my grip. Beforehand I thought 130kg would be manageable so it was cool to witness myself picking up the 140kg barbell and complete it all the way. At that point I had 5 full sets done so I figured it's time to call it quits.
I liked this kind of programming with the deadlifts. I believe it's more important to be able to move semi-heavy bars several times in a row than having a huge 1 rep max. It sure as hell feels good as I one beautiful day lift that magical 200kg =) but that's not the main purpose. It's more important to perform 21-15-9 type of workouts unbroken. Anyway, I feel like today's training with deads was great! I still had some strength left in my back but my grip started to get a little slippery so grip strength was more an issue than back strength.
Set of 100kg
Metcon. Time 4.40
4 rounds of:
15 box
10 toes-to-bar
Something little fun to play around after the deadlifts. Box jumps and T2B's. Toes-to-bars are another movement that has been ignored, without a proper reason. This workout went pretty much unbroken except the last set of T2B's. I didn't rush anywhere and didn't run through the box jumps with huge pace. It was more like a solid smooth pace.
Technique.
Squat snatch
Overhead squat
I wasn't done with my workouts. Didn't have anything in my schedule but somehow I wanted to do something more. I was thinking about mobility but then realized my squat snatch and overhead squat needs improvement and those two movements also mobilize my upper back and hips in a good way.
At this stage I realized my hips were loose and very active. I had no problems in squatting well over parallel. I took some snatches and then found a good stance to complete some overhead squats. Once I lowered my butt for the first time, it felt perfect! I was very startled how good it actually felt, how natural my hips were in that bottom position. I was able to sit down there in the bottom position, ass to the grass, so to say. I didn't have to slow the movement as I lowered myself but I hit the bottom and stayed there for a few seconds just to find natural position.
After some overhead sets I was confident in trying directly squat snatch. A movement I believe I have never done in one smooth continuation. I tried it and it went perfectly to the bottom! No hip pain whatsoever. Had to redo them several times to proof myself it wasn't by accident. I did quite a lot of squat snatches today because it felt awesome! Hopefully I can activate my hips and upper back as well as today in the future because that squat snatch is a sick movement which I'd like to learn properly.
For cooling down, 6 min cycling with decreasing tempo.
Handstand training. As I got home that back yard of mine looked so tempting that I had to chill out for a sec and then put on some training shorts and walk outdoors. I managed well today. I want to believe I'm taking those important steps to master this skill at the end of the summer. Mastering means handstand walking about 10 meters in a row. Take a look at some clips from this afternoon.
Handstand training
Handstand walking
Headstand training
Toni's workout. Metcon.
4 rounds of:
1min, thrusters 50kg
1min, double unders
1min, walking lunges
1min, V-ups
1min rest
The only thing Pony counted, was the number of thrusters. They were 8, 8, 6, 6 reps in those 4 rounds. The picture is from his back yard. Perfect training spot I would say. If I had that, I'd probably be handstand walking and carrying that tractor tire every day. I'm happy for him to have those bumper plates now worth 60kg, that allows him to do incomprehensible amount of workouts.
Thursday. This day was exactly what I needed. I took one hour technique and skills training, concentrating a lot to my snatch technique. I really got forward, my confidence level increased and I found the tracks better and was able to do squat snatches. I practiced the movement from the floor and from the hang position. I've been watching coach Burgener's teaching videos and tried to absorb every tip possible. There were quite a number of repetitions and I only used a 20kg bar, intentionally didn't add any kilos, just learnt the technique. I also did squat cleans and overhead squats, it took something like 30-40min. I've been doing power cleans lately so it was very important to do them as squat versions.
They both moved forward, it's hard to describe how happy I am to this day's success. I also took some handstand, double unders and ring skills for about half an hour. It was very good session. From there I drove to my floor ball training where we took 20-30min circuit training. All in all, good day!
By the way, since starting Donscrossfit 27th July this year, the blog has received 5.000 hits in total! Thanks a lot for following, I'm happy you guys enjoy! You are always free to comment and give suggestions.
As a teaser I can say that HC Triplet II is taking place 17th November =)
