Monday. Bench emom x 10min: 3 reps @ 80kg. Workout, 5rds of: 10 ring dip + 10 light tall clean (2x12.5kg db's). Workout, 5rds of: 10 bent over row (25-30kg db's) + 10 strict press (2x17.5kg db's).
It sucks to have my leg out of order. I have to ignore lower body work for a while. No squats for a week I anticipate. Hopefully just a week, not month(s). Time will tell but I ain't looking for a month of just bench and presses. Today this was exactly the game plan. It was okay for a change but this is not something I'd do on a daily basis =)
Started the session with benching for couple of sets. It was a bit difficult to get a good warm-up and sweat on with being cautious of lower body all the time. Bench is a pretty good movement, I've realized it lately but it doesn't bring an old school sweat easily. After taking couple of sets I decided to drop down a bit and add the intensity to by making it an emom workout.
This weight was quite good for this type of emom. Actually it might have been the first time doing bench on the minute style. Worked well.
Workout.
5 rounds not for time of:
10 ring dip
10 tall clean, 2 x 12.5kg dumbbells
Ring dips were a no-brainer. What to couplet it with was a more difficult question. It turned out to be very light cleans with dumbbells. Heavy db's would have been preferred but at this point you probably know why that didn't happen. Ring dips were the beef on this wod. Went unbroken on them, and focused on full range of motion, and continuous movement and rhythm. Dips felt very good.
Workout.
5 rounds not for time of:
10 bent over row, 25-30kg dumbbell
10 strict press, 2 x 17.5kg dumbbells
Rows are something I do like never. I have overlooked this movement a lot. After trying it out today, I can see there is a point why it might be a good accessory element in fitness. Not replacing anything but at the end of a good training session some bent over rows with dumbbells or barbell are probably not a bad idea if there's plenty of time to play around.
So this was the first time doing these and the weights were moderate. Maybe I'll give it another shot some day. Today I took a short pause on top of the movement, and focused on good control both ways, up and down. Strict presses were the partner for rows. Counter movement. Shoulder press / Strict press for 10 reps at the same dumbbells. These started to get heavy towards the end of each set. Still, they were manageable.
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!
Monday. Strength: 10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press @70kg). Metcon, 2k row. Every 250m perform 5 strict shoulder press + 5 diamond push-ups. Wear a 9kg vest. Time 13.36
I love cleans! It was time for another complex type of workout, combining cleans and push presses. It was perfect. And the metcon to follow, huh, exactly what I wanted. And it gets better. I had Pauliina and Tony the Pony with me, couldn't be better.
Strength.
10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press)
70kg on the barbell each set
Was wondering the weights for a second and then realized 70kg would suit well for my purposes. I wanted to have 2-position squat cleans: from hang and from ground. I can clean 95kg from the ground but haven't probably done cleaned more than 70-75kg from hang position. And there were also 2 push presses to be done after the cleans. So I got my head around 70kg and completed all sets with the same weight.
It was good to have Tony with me to coach. We did our strength parts alternating so that we were able to give feedback to each other. That was valuable. My elbows weren't in perfect position in the first 2 sets. After that Toni pointed out the importance of the elbows shooting straight ahead. The weight was not that heavy that it would force me in having them in the right position so it was crucial to have a coach saying that out loud. Thanks for that man.
Barbell flew up pretty nicely in my opinion. That 70kg isn't that bad and it was awesome to realize it was also easy on the hang squats as well. The push press was the toughest part strength-wise. However, I had no doubts in any of the lifts. The weight was simply perfect for today. Could have been 75kg but no point in going further from that in this type of workout. It was about one set per 1.5min throughout the workout.
Metcon. Time 13.36
2.000m row
Every 250m, perform the following:
5 strict dumbbell presses, 2 x 17.5kg
5 diamond push-ups
This was nice. Rowing pace was around 1.40 / 500m in the beginning and the latter kilometer was around 1.45 / 500m. I usually go with the damper setting of 8 and today was no exception. 250m is a short sprint, only about 20 strokes so you can put more effort there. Those presses and diamond push-ups started to eat some of the strength which caused the pace to slow down a bit. Still, that was not the bottleneck, it was more like the transition times between movements.
Had 2 x 17.5kg dumbbells with the strict shoulder presses. Those went unbroken as well as the diamond push-ups. Those concentrate more pressure in the triceps. Having 9kg vest on from the beginning makes it a bit tougher on every aspect of it. In the beginning it felt awkward to row with a weighted vest but I got used to it pretty quickly.
Enjoyed this workout and this entire training session a lot. These were all good wods, first the barbell complex and then some wet-shirt metcon wearing a vest. Loved it!
Pony did some old school strength to strengthen his posterior chain. He did some beautiful squats, good depth on the reps, good form in general, and good breathing technique as well. Highest set was 115kg. Then it was time to move on to his metcon, consisting of box jumps and db snatches. He completed those snatches changing hand after 5 reps: first 5 left, then 5 right hand. I put there 4.5 rounds because he was supposed to do 5 rounds but for some sick reason he forgot to complete the last set of snatches =) Well, he punished himself after he relayed it and did the 10 missing reps with 25kg. Fair enough.
Sunday. AM: Back squats 3-3-3-3-3 (max 130kg). Metcon, 6 rounds of hero wod Nick. Time 16.00. PM: Handstand skills training.
I was ready to pump it up after a rest day. Pauliina joined me at the box early in the afternoon for a training session. From the members' book we saw there had been only 2 persons training in the last 2 days. Guess the Midsummer party in Finland has taken its' toll on people =) I'm guessing tomorrow there's another mood and people are back at the gym. I went after squat triples today, followed by half a hero wod and some weighted vest action. Couple of hours later I concentrated in skills training.
Strength. Back squats 3-3-3-3-3 (100, 110, 120, 125, 130kg). I was hoping to make good numbers today after a rest day. My 1rep max is 140kg. Today's focus was in triples. I was hoping to nail that 130kg with which I've had some troubles lately. I've been able to get it up as single lift when I've tried it but a triple has been challenging. Today I skipped 80kg from my warm-up, did only cold bar squats and 60kg warm-up after jumping directly to 100kg. Of course I warmed-up in other ways but didn't want to put too much focus on semi-weights. Max load today was 3x130kg, I'm very happy about these lifts today.
Back squats 3x120kg
Metcon. Time 16.00
6 rounds of:
10 hang squat cleans with dumbbells, 20kg each hand
6 handstand push-ups
Quite a thorough workout for upper body if you ask me! Hero workout Nick, dumbbell squat cleans and hspu's. Rx'd this workout is done for a total of 12 rounds. That would total 72 handstand push-ups which is clearly too much for me in one day. Well, there would have been 120 cleans as well but that would have been manageable. My version of the workout was 6 rounds, or half a Nick.
The work done with dumbbells must be beneficial. The movements are so much different if you compare them with barbell work. And you really see the difference between arm / shoulder strength. I can see my right side is slightly stronger than my left, especially in presses and grip strength. Left arm starts to wiggle a bit earlier than right one.
Those handstand push-ups started to wear me out after a couple of rounds. First round unbroken, then 4+2, then the last 4 rounds it was probably in 3 sets. What took me time was the time between those sets because I know that if I try to rush it and force another hspu, it will be very very challenging without recovery. I had 2 failed reps as I was not listening to my burning shoulders. Attempted a rep but couldn't straighten myself and lock the elbows so had to take a short break to recover.
That other movement, hang squat cleans with dumbbells, was cool! It was a forearm burner and once I let go of the db's, my shoulders were firing up as well. But I liked it =) Thought it would be tough on legs as well because of all that squatting before and during the workout but it wasn't.
Cashout. Not for time. 20 to 2, down by 2's, sit-ups and presses.
20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2
Sit-ups
Strict dumbbell press, 2x10kg
Wear a 9kg vest
I brought my 9kg vest just in case with me and I'm happy I did so. In the end the cashout consisted of regular crossfit style sit-ups and strict dumbbell presses with 10kg dumbbells each arm. Weight wasn't heavy because the point was to move fast. There were a total of 110 reps each movement. Starting from 20 reps, coming down by 2's all the way to 2 reps. Had my vest on the entire time. After the workout we did some other style of ab work with Pauliina as well, she had some good training tips there. Finally 5min work with crosstrainer to cool down.
Handstand training. After coming home we ate at the balcony and I realized the view was perfect. I couldn't ignore the freshly planted grass matt at our back yard. There was simply no other chance but to go and practice handstand skills. My friend / neighbor also joined me there and we did handstand training and muscle-ups (at the kids playground swing). I saw the opportunity and utilized it =)
I had good attempts and I'm very satisfied to this session as well, actually the entire day was a good training day!
Free handstanding
This little guy also had some advice to handstand training =)
