Monday. Emom x 10min: 3 c&j @ 70kg. Benchmark wod Air Force. Time, 7.51 (PR)
Rough day huh. That Air Force is one nasty maddafakka. I took clean and jerks in emom style with a little heavier weight than normally in barbell conditioning workouts. Then a blast from the past in the form of that benchmark workout. That sealed the day perfectly.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
3 clean and jerks @ 70kg
It was great to smash that barbell up and down. Focus was to keep the barbell moving touch'n'go on the ground and on the front rack. No pausing at any stage. Went for triples at 70kg which is basically 10kg more than normally when keeping a bar moving constantly. These felt pretty good even though I haven't done c&j's in a while.
It's been about 1.5 years since I've done this benchmark workout. It's been in my mind in the past weeks and months but it's a nasty one so maybe that's the reason I've been putting it in the background. Those punishment burpees are cruel.
My mental game was clearly better than before and I'm extremely happy on this matter. Especially on thrusters and sdhp's. Jerks were okay but it would have been cool to smash then faster. Overhead squats looked ugly and felt miserable. That was not a surprise though.
What I'm super happy about is the way I finished the workout. Grabbed the bar after ohs's to get couple of reps done before the hopefully last burpees. I was definitely not going to complete a single burpee anymore so I fought through the 15 front squats even though my legs were very weak at that point and my mind wanted to put the bar down and go to bed.
It took me a good time to recover from this but I'm super happy for completing this! This was a 2min personal record on this benchmark wod.
Friday. Oly lifts emom: sdhp's and hang snatches. Wod, 5rds of: 40m farmer's walk @ 113kg, 40m lunges, 10 t2b. Cashout, 200m walking lunges wearing a weight vest. L-sit pull-ups, 4 sets.
Friday night training session. As I entered the gym, the owner told right away that he's ordering jerk blocks from Rogue. That was sick news! I've been drawling over those for a year now. Hopefully someday I'm able to put some weight overhead because those will definitely make a difference for jerks.
Oly.
Every 30 seconds: 1 sumo deadlift high-pull @ 80kg, for 10 minutes
Every minute on the minute: 3 high hang power snatch @ 40kg, for 10 minutes
Two different emom style workouts. There was a 3min break between these. Damn I'd like to do cleans. Sumo deadlift high-pulls are my substitute for those. There aren't many bar movements I can smash right now so I went heavy on the sdhp's. Never have I gone over 60kg before today.
It was a positive thing I was able to do power snatches. Can't put real weight on the bar though but the movement was okay this time. Focus was on extending my hips properly and being powerful. Towards the end it got better.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
40m farmer's walk @ 113kg
40m walking lunges, bodyweight
10 toes-to-bar
Great one. That farmer's walk was a nice piece to throw in the mix. That's definitely not too light. Haven't gone beyond this weight on this movement either before. That's obviously an entire body movement
Bodyweight burned quads big time, especially right after the farmer's walk. That was purely bodyweight stuff but it was definitely sufficient. T2b's were there to bring more pressure on the core. Great workout. Didn't time this at all but worked with same determination as normally.
Cashout.
200m walking lunges
Wear a 9kg vest
Went back and forth that 20m length of grass matt, wearing a vest that weighs 9-10 kilos. Went unbroken for each leg of the distance, then shook my legs before continuing the journey. This was bad ass on lower body.
Gymnastics.
4 sets of:
L-sit pull-ups
Result: 10, 10, 9, 5 reps
In the end I decided to do this old fella I haven't said hi to in ages. L-sit pull-ups, max sets for for 4 sets. First two were 10 reps each, third was close but on the 4th set my arms were so pumped that I could only go for 5. These were no-reps by a long shot but I'll take it. Didn't come to a dead hang in the bottom position. I'm still happy to being able to do these sets nicely.
Late evening session. I got inspired by two other crossfitters at the gym. They had a long pair workout which they had stolen from the legend himself - Mikko Salo. I went to explore Mikko's instagram for a good half an hour and tried to absorb every piece of wisdom he had revealed to fellow crossfitters. Then I brainstormed with myself and came up with this gem =)
Workout.
3 rounds of:
500m row
40m farmer's walk @ 113kg
500m row
40m sled pull @ 110kg (+sled)
500m row
15 sumo deadlift high-pulls @ 60kg
This was exactly what I was looking for. The stimulus was right on point. Lots of rowing mixed up with strongman elements. Haven't done much farmer's walk or sled work lately. Sumo deadlift high-pulls have been in the program for a reason in the past two weeks because that's pretty much the only thing with barbell that doesn't bother my wrist.
Got to say this was something close to genius. Rowing pace was something between 1:50 - 1:58 so nothing serious but still I had to keep pulling to keep the boat moving. Lots of these elements burdened lower body so rowing was a good add-on to that.
Farmer's walk after a day of deadlifting was interesting. I was able to maintain an upright torso so that didn't stress lower back that much. I like this movement for some reason.
Sled pulls are close to a nightmare. Damn they burn quads big time. First leg of the 40 meters is okay but the comeback is awful. These are far away from comfort zone.
Last strength element was the sumo deadlift high-pulls. I've done them in the recent history couple of times. Before that it was probably something like once a year pace. Now I've done them with 50kg barbell. Today I jumped up to 60kg, and felt okay with that weight. The bar path is a little off from ideal as it escapes a little too far from my shins but at least the barbell moves pretty well up and down.
Friday. 30sec on, 30sec off, for 10min: row. Wod, 10min amrap: 10 sdhp @ 50kg, 20 box overs. Wod, 5rds of 12 kb swing @ 32kg, 12 ghd.
Efficient session. Three-piece wod to finish the working week. I'm telling you guys I'm missing some old school barbell cycling. Once I get my body healed up 100% I'm gonna smash cleans big time. I've been dreaming of getting a bar on my front rack for some time now.
Workout.
0:00 - 10:00
30sec on, 30sec off, row for max distance
10:00 - 15:00
Rest
15:00 - 25:00
Amrap of:
10 sumo deadlift high-pulls @ 50kg
20 box jump overs
Result, 199 reps (6 rounds + 9 box)
25:00 - 33:00
Rest
33:00 - 39:27
5 rounds of:
12 kettlebell swing @ 32kg
12 ghd sit-ups
Clock was running constantly. The plan was to keep 5min breaks between wods but the latter recovery period stretched a bit as I was re-evaluating the movements. This was a great combination of action. There could be some cleans / snatches in the mix as well as hspu's, burpees and ring dips if my wrist would allow it. I really like this kind of effective sessions!
On the rowing my butt got numb towards the end and legs were smoked! Pace was around 1:35 throughout. A little faster in the beginning, maybe 1:32, and at slowest it was 1:37. I checked the distance after 10 minutes were over but I already forgot it.
On the second part the plan was to go unbroken on both movements. I could have broken the sdhp's early on and shortened the transitions. Don't know what would have been the best version but the goal of the workout was met today. Only in the last round I broke the reps as clock was winding down.
Box jumps seem to be my thing. I can keep going even with a heavy heart rate. Legs got tired though during the course of this workout for sure.
After these two workouts my legs were pretty much done so having kettlebell swings in the last piece got me thinking what can I pair it up with. Turned out to be ghd's. This was a nice core workout indeed. Took me slightly over 6 minutes to finish finish it.
Today we went to the gym together with Pauliina. Quality time with the family I would say. Plan was to ride to the sun with jerks but my wrist hurts more than it has this far. Got to be careful with that one so I changed plans and did things that don't put lots of pressure on that area.
Metcon.
1.000m row
50 pistol squats
50 sumo deadlift high-pulls @ 50kg
Great one! Huh, this was not a pleasant idea to jump on to. The row was a good warm-up. I saw there no point in rowing my ass off and getting out of breath before the pistols. That would gassed me out of the game. The pace was a little faster than 1:50 / 500m. I guess the time was 3.38 at 1.000m.
Got to admit that 50 pistol squats in a row made me hesitate a bit. Decided to complete them in sets of 10 reps, alternating after every rep. They went better than I anticipated. Very pleased on them. Maybe couple of shady ones there that I'm not entirely pleased with but in general I'm very happy.
Last element sumo deadlift high-pulls. These were supposed to be 70kg hang power cleans but there was no chance I was getting a barbell on my front rack. Wrist doesn't allow that to happen. This was a perfect sub for cleans. Doing high-rep workout with sdhp's has been tickling me for a long time so this suited very well. Got them done in 10-10-5-5-5-5-5-5. Check the video for pistols and sumo's.
Sled.
Sled pull backwards
3x40m @ 110kg (plus sled)
Rest as needed between sets
This was a killer in the end. It's now been pretty much 10 days in a row doing squats or burning legs in some form. The purpose of this workout in the end was to get strong mentally. I'm telling you my quads were burning big time. Especially on the way back. The grass matt is 20 meters so I went back and forth. The way back was a murder on the mid-way. I took something like 3min rest between efforts. My quads were hard as rock after each set. They were close to cramping most of the time.
Monday. Emom x 10min: 2 high hang snatch (up to 55kg). Emom x 10min: 2 back squat (120kg). Metcon, 4rds of: 10 hspu, 10 sdhp (50kg).
Went to the gym today with a tight hour time slot. That was very tight taking into consideration my plans included snatch, squats and a metcon. After warm-up I put the clock running for the first emom, and it accidentally kept running after snatches. In the end I realized it was 37 minutes and all the work had been done. That was fast and efficient.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10min
1-2min: 40kg
3-4min: 45kg
5-6min: 50kg
7-8min: 55kg
9-10min: 60kg
Felt pretty good to snatch today. Originally plan was to pull from the ground but then again, that includes loading the hamstrings and posterior chain tight on the first pull. That was out of question. Squatting is okay though. This is a bit strange that I have some small pain when right hamstring is under tension because of that sprained leg on the sprints on Sunday one week ago.
These were doubles up to 55 kilos, and the last lifts at 60kg were singles. I'm pretty happy considering there has been some pause from previous snatches. I had plenty of energy to snatch more but it was time to move on.
Squats.
Every minute on the minute x 10min
2 back squat @ 120kg
Heavier squats were not going to happen because of the time constraints. I decided on a weight that I knew was going to be doable without much movement specific warm-up. Took couple of reps before this weight, then hit a double in touch'n'go style every minute. No pause in between. Felt actually awesome to squat. This weight was good for this session. Could have been a bit heavier but I'm happy with this one for sure.
Metcon.
4 rounds of:
10 handstand push-up
10 sumo deadlift high pull, 50kg
This has been on my phone's notes for maybe two weeks. I've been waiting for the right time to hit it. Actually it was 12min amrap in the beginning but I just decided to hit it today as I had mentally prepared for it even though I had to kind of rush it through. After squats I just loaded the barbell at 50kg, and threw myself against the wall for hspu's.
Both elements were completed unbroken. I reckoned handstand push-ups would be so but the sumo deadlift high pulls were a positive surprise. It was kind of difficult to know how they would feel like as I've done only 35-40kg sdhp's this far. They had this movement in the Regionals in 2015 at 60kg, total of 50 reps, in the long chipper workout. That looked really cool, and the athletes looked like they are getting crushed mentally and physically with this movement. Since then, it's been knocking in the back of my head. Very good workout, and my shoulders definitely took the biggest hit in this.
My plan for this early week was to take it easy on Monday, just focusing on upper body stuff. Tuesday's about conditioning. Wednesday's agenda is strength and oly. Thursday is gonna be posterior chain and conditioning. Friday has two options. Either a hero workout or snatch / squat session. Depending on my training buddy.
Metcon. Result, 203 reps (5 rounds + 3 s2o)
10min amrap of:
20 shoulder-to-overhead, 2x15kg dumbbells
20 ghd sit-ups
Haven't seen this many people at the gym this far. They opened during Easter this year and little by little the place has gotten crowded at times. The word is out there that this place is a good one, I guess. Today I was a little worried as all the barbells were taken so I had to modify my plans. Had I done strength, it would have probably been okay to share a squat rack but for metcon you got to own the barbell.
These two metcons were supposed to be the other way around but it didn't matter. I subbed bar to dumbbells which worked as well, didn't matter. This brought a good burn on the shoulders and core. I got 5 full rounds and couple jerks in addition to that. First 3 rounds were unbroken on the jerks, then it was 12-8 and 13-7 on the remaining two rounds.
Ghd's were unbroken each round. Even though they got tougher, there was no doubt of hitting them unbroken. They definitely started to feel in my core at some point but this is somewhat a strength of mine. Good metcon!
Metcon. Result, 144 reps (7 rounds + 4 sdhp)
10min amrap of:
10 sumo deadlift high-pull, 40kg
10 burpee
Had to go upstairs because all the people. It was a good call as they had 3 additional barbells. This metcon was not going to be done without a bar. It's been ages since doing sumo deadlift high pulls last time. Really, it's been months or over a year, no idea when. But I liked it! Felt rather natural on this one and the bar didn't bounce back and forth but stayed in my control all the way.
This workout freaked me out. Especially after the first one. I realized this is going to hurt. My shoulders got hurt (only muscle hurt though) on the first one so there was a chance this is not going to be fun at all. Both elements forced heart rate up, and I got them unbroken each round. Burpees were nastier. This got me better than the first workout. Had to walk away the pain after 10 minutes was up.
Monday. Complex, 5 sets of: clean, front squat, jerk, clean, front squat, jerk (max 92.5kg). Front squat 4-4-4-4 (max 120kg). Mainsite wod, 4rds of: 10 sdhp, 10 push press, 20 back squat (42.5kg barbell). Time, 9.38.
Great day of training! Heavy barbell work to start with, and working on my oly skills in there. Complex to begin with, and assisting it with front squats. The first time doing real front squats after I had this injury on my wrist. That thing is gone now and I can fully concentrate in all elements of training I want to pursuit. It turned out my training partner and beloved one wasn't finished with her wod so I had plenty of time to hit the workout of the day from crossfit.com. It was much tougher than it looked like on paper.
Don't mind the end time. I was too beaten up after the workout so it took me a minute to stop it =)
Complex.
5 working sets of:
Clean
Front squat
Jerk
Clean
Front squat
Jerk
Weights 80, 85, 87.5, 90, 92.5kg
Need to get better in having the bar overhead. One day I got this fixation in my head and I'll try to fit it in my programming. Today's work load was different than heavy singles of clean and jerk. It was taxing for the body to complete such a many reps in a row with these weights. This complex was great.
Cleans were light and they felt so too. Bar path was good, and I didn't panic out on the squat position of the movement. My wrist seems like it's fully recovered, hopefully that's the real deal now. I found out I'd better complete the front squat right away after standing up from the hole on the squat clean. That way the bar is on the front rack shorter period of time, and thus allowing more energy to be used on the jerk.
Once I completed the jerk, I brought the bar back to the floor, reset, and completed another rep. No tng's here. Total of 5 sets on this complex, starting from 80kg, going up to 92.5kg. This was big news. Somehow I got lots of satisfaction over the weights that moved around. Yes, it got heavy but still the jerk was no problem at any time. Very satisfying news!
Squats.
Front squat 4-4-4-4 (110, 115, 117.5, 120kg)
After recovering for 2 minutes, I loaded the bar on the rack with 110kg, and took a 4 rep set. Easy one. Add more weights and it got spicy. Still manageable though. Small plates at the end of the bar and completed another set of 4 reps @ 117.5kg. No compromises on the form. That was definitely a big goal. Have a good posture and upright position in all sets. One step further and the last set at 120kg was tough but yet, I manhandled it.
Mainsite. Time, 9.38
4 rounds of:
10 sumo deadlift high pull, 42.5kg
10 push press, 42.5kg
20 back squat, 42.5kg
Okay, at this moment my body was smashed. It gets on me if I work through a number of strength sets with heavy weights. I took about 10 minutes to recover from the last squats before starting this one. I saw this mainsite workout in the morning, and it looked appealing right away. Light weight barbell was a good choice after the strength part. Definitely no heavy weights at this stage.
What I was a little scared of, was the number of back squats. No matter the load on the barbell if it's such a high-rep workout. Those sdhp's were not gonna make a big difference, there were only 10 of them. Same with the push press. I knew both wouldn't bring problems. Of course they would start hurting shoulder and create breathing problems but this workout would be all about back squats. And it was.
First round was the fastest, around 1:47, and the following 3 rounds were about 2:30-2:40. They were consistent after the first round. I went unbroken on the sdhp's for maybe 2 rounds, then dropped the bar after 6 reps on the last 2 rounds. Took just a couple of seconds break and then finished it.
On the first round I got the push presses unbroken and then dropped it on my back rack right away for the squats. Following rounds were 9 reps, drop it, finish the last one and go for squats. I just wanted to release the tension in my upper body before hitting below parallel.
Back squats had to be unbroken. I wasn't gonna drop the bar. They hurt, they hurt so bad. But I got them done. Don't know how I managed the reps. It wasn't all up and down pumping. I stopped standing with the bar but it had to be done in one sequence.
Very good workout. No wonder, as it was a mainsite wod. If it's too easy, then you didn't put your soul into it. Those clean and jerks + front squats felt in my body already before this even began so at least I got the influence I was looking for by completing this one.
Today I had time to hang out at the gym for just a little while because we were heading to a dinner and theater afterwards with a bunch of colleagues, Toni including. We were both planning to hit a workout but unfortunately he missed the session. I decided to go for a classic, Air Force. I'll write more about it later. Now I have some issues with internet connection. To be short: it was brutal!
Okay, internet connection is back and I'll try to re-live the feelings of yesterday's workout. That was some nasty shit. Toni did this one this Wednesday too and thought it was horrible. I've never done this rx'd. Once as individual February 2013, that time I did it as written except for the overhead squats which I didn't do at all. And one year ago in August as a partner workout with Toni. But that was way lighter as pair wod.
The point of this workout is to crawl in to that dark place and fight through the emotions. Just think about a happy place and grind through. There are 4 burpees on top of every minute which brings this to another level. You throw that 4 burpee element to any workout and it's a different game.
I got the thrusters done in the first minute and it was time to thrown chest to deck immediately after that. I was happy for not having to pick it up anymore for 1-2 reps. That would have been a turn off. This was probably first time doing sumo deadlift high pulls in 2 years or so. I honestly don't remember having done them except for the Air Force workouts last year of course. This was the first time this movement felt natural. It was so awkward in the beginning of my crossfit training. I got these done in maybe 14-6, that means to say I had to do burpees between those sets.
I remembered these were supposed to be done as push presses so I didn't jerk the bar. Just today, one day after the workout, Toni revealed the true nature of that shoulder-to-overhead standard. I was desiring to push jerk it but stuck to push presses as I thought that was the rx'd version. Don't remember how many reps per set but I recall doing them in 2 sets. I guess.
Overhead squats… This was easily the most challenging element for me, hands down! I took 'em in sets of 3-5 reps. Then I had to drop the bar down, reset, complete the punishment burpees, raise my head again and start working. On the first minute of ohs I power snatched the bar, from then on I took it clean and jerked it on my back rack from where I jerked it overhead for the squat. Now as I write it down it sounds kind of irrational but at the moment power snatch didn't feel like a good idea. On the first set of ohs I didn't have much positive thoughts concerning this benchmark workout but after 2-3 sets I got my hope back.
After the last set of ohs I had time to complete couple of front squats before the last burpees. Those few reps were crucial because I decided to mentally push through the pain and burn in my legs no matter what. The burn in my quads was enormous after completing the last 14 front squats in the last minute. Finally the clock stopped at 9.48, and I was happy again =)
I was hoping to catch the entire workout on tape but unfortunately I forgot to empty some old videos there so memory card got full of old training clips. Here are the first 2 minutes of it, thrusters, burpees and some sdhp.
Friday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Pair wod, Air Force. Technique, back squat and clean. Cashout, 4x5 c2b pull-ups.
Got together with Toni to do a pair wod. We're thinking of doing Air Force separately but decided to make it a pair wod instead. We didn't mind the clock at all, I don't actually have no idea how much it took us to complete the set. I also did some muscle-up training in the beginning for skills training and then technical fine-tuning for back squats and hang cleans. After a long pause tried also c2b pull-ups and realized it's way easier than some months ago. That inspired me to take a few sets.
One athlete working at a time, completing 20 reps before the next athlete steps in
Complete the movements with a 42.5kg barbell
For every drop, both athletes complete 5 burpees on the spot
Normally you do Air Force individually with 20 reps each 5 movements. The twist is that you'll complete 4 burpees on the start of every minute. That really sucks =) And you don't really get to rest that much because the clock is ticking and the next set of burpees is waiting you again in no time. We mixed it up by going for pair wod, doubling the reps but the idea was that both complete 20 reps of each movement. I started, went for 20 thrusters, then Toni did 20 thrusters, then move on to sdhp's. Every single time either of us had to drop the barbell, the punishment was 5 burpees for both of us.
Felt strong with the movements. Thrusters unbroken, sdhp's unbroken, push jerks unbroken, overhead squats in 12+8, front squats unbroken. I was a bit worried pre-workout about the overhead squats. Last time I was ashamed those were too difficult to overcome, had no reps at all with the rx'd barbell and had to skip them totally. Since February, I've improved greatly on the movement and today I had no problems in executing the reps successfully. Had to still break it in 2 sets, dropped the bar after first 12 reps, did the burpees and finished the set.
Don't know what the case would have been with 4 burpees in the start of every minute. It's a rush to get all 20 reps done each minute. All thrusters should be done in the first minute but from then on I don't know how it would turn out. Tomorrow it felt better to do this as pair wod anyway. We had 45 burpees in total with Toni during the workout. The most difficult part of the workout for Toni was definitely the ohs. It's only because he's not been practicing them. I'm sure he's gonna fix this one. I punished myself in the end by doing 20 extra burpees.
Cashout.
4x5 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Pauliina worked on her pull-up skills and I got so inspired that I had to jump up there as well. Tried a few c2b's just to see it's like from another planet compared to what it used to be. That's why I took 4 sets of 5 reps. I might just take these short sets in the end once in a while. I'm sure all those muscle-up training sessions have created more explosive strength because I'm sure I've never pulled myself that high with as much ease as today.
Saturday. Front squat (max 125kg), 5rds of barbell work, cashing out with du's and k2e's.
What a beautiful day in Helsinki! Spring is coming, sun is shining and it was a perfect day to work hard! Training session in the morning and recovery stroll outdoors afterwards with Pauliina. Toni tagged along at the Box for another long metcon.
Strength. Front squat 5x3 (100, 110, 120, 125 failed, 115kg). On 125 managed only 1 rep. Felt good front squatting today. I'm trying to let it go beyond parallel and with front squats it's way easier than back squats. I'm happy with how I performed up to 120kg. On 125kg I got only 1 rep, should have forced that second rep up as well. Here are some videos of 110-120kg sets.
Front squat, 110kg
Front squat, 120kg
Metcon. 40kg on the barbell, 1 bar.
5 rounds of:
4 shoulder press
8 sumo deadlift high-pull
12 front squats
40kg on the barbell
Didn't put the clock running but fought through like it was. I did a few sets before I really started it because Toni was in the middle of his 20min amrap and we were doing the barbell work at the same spot. From that I knew it's not gonna be a stroll in the park. Even though the bar wasn't heavy, the amount of reps makes it nasty.
Shoulder press means no leg assistance is allowed, purely press it up. Haven't been doing many sumo deadlift high-pulls at all, probably only when doing Fight Gone Bad. That weight sounds ridiculously light for front squats but it surely wasn't! Had to take short breaks between rounds to catch my breath. This was a workout that really put my respiration to test, the toughest I've had in a while. It felt awful and good at the same time, just like a proper crossfit workout should feel =) I completed all movements unbroken.
Cashout.
5 rounds of:
30 double unders
10 knees-to-elbows
Total of 150 DU and 50 K2E. First round of double unders was difficult for me for some reason. I stumbled with the jump rope maybe three times before completing it. At some point it felt like my calves were about to cramp. Luckily it went by. Then the rest of the rounds were unbroken except one where I got 27 reps before making a stupid mistake. Knees-to-elbows unbroken. This one also took some effort on the heart because of the double under jumping.
All in all, this was a training session where my heart was pumping rapidly. I got a good strength training to start off and then these two metcons were perfect for me today. In the afternoon we took a recovery walk together with Pauliina in a vernal Helsinki.
Pauliina's headstand on a dancing pole =)
Toni's workouts. Result. 8 rounds + 2 reps. Total of 322 reps.
I went to the Box in the morning and had a plan to do shoulder and push presses triples. Once I was at the gym and started pressing the bar, I felt some pain in my right shoulder and decided to stop it immediately. I felt a bit disappointed and my training didn't work out well at all. I basically drove a bicycle and was sweating like a pig but it can not be said it was a perfect training day.
However, it was awesome to witness Elias do his workout:
20min amrap of
5 deadlifts
10 dumbbell clean & jerk
250m row / 25 sumo deadlift high-pull
The purpose was to do rowing but at times the rower was occupied so his subbed it to SDHP. I'm very positively surprised he was able to go steadily throughout the workout without having major stops in between movements. Considering he's recovering from knee injury, this was spectacular!
Sunday. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (max PR 130kg). Air Force modified, time 8.30. Floorball game in the evening.
Tough day. Heavy front squats for starters and main focus on benchmark challenge workout called Air Force. I had decided yesterday evening I'm gonna hit a PR today in front squats and I saw dreams about it couple of times during the night =) I had no other choice but to crash it. The entourage at the gym consisted of Pauliina, Tony the Pony and his wife Saara.
Pony & Don
Strength. Front squat 5-5-5-5-3-1 (80, 90, 100, 110, 120, PR 130kg). Even though I was desperate to hit a new record, I mainly wanted to do sets of 5 reps in the beginning as far as I could go. My previous max was at 125kg. I started carefully with 80kg, adding 10kg after each set. 110kg was tough on the last reps and on the 120kg I got 3 reps. After doing 5 sets already and quite a number of repetitions with heavy kilos I decided to skip current PR of 125kg and go straight up to 130kg. Take a single rep and celebrate. Check!
Front squat, 130kg, PR
Air Force. Time 8.30
20 thrusters
20 sumo deadlift high-pulls
20 push jerks
(20 overhead squats)
20 front squats
Use a 42.5kg barbell for all movements. Complete 4 burpees at the beginning of each minute.
Total of 100 repetitions with a bar, all with the same weight on it, 42.5kg (95lbs). Each minute starts with doing 4 burpees for starters, then continue with the movement where you are at the workout. Starting with thrusters, then sumo deadlift high-pulls, push jerks, overhead squats and finally front squats. Barbell starts from the floor all the time, don't use a rack.
We knew it's gonna be a nightmare to go through this one as you have practically no time to rest as the burpees will be waiting for you just around the corner when the next minute starts again… Even though the barbell is not that heavy but considering the amount of reps and burpees it's gonna make your shoulders scream for pain. And it did.
What surprised us both was that we both failed to complete any overhead squats in this workout. I'm a bit embarrassed I had to skip them totally after trying it for a while. It was simply too demanding to hold the bar overhead and squat neatly in to perfect 90 degrees angle for a full range of motion at that point of the workout. So we did Air Force without the OHS but still I wasted one minute on trying those out. Time was finally 8.30. Here is a 20min time cap on this workout.
Thrusters went practically unbroken, sumo deadlifts took me two separate minutes to go through. Push jerks at that stage felt heavy, I took them 4x5. Front squats in the end went first in 14 reps and 6 reps in the final minute. There were a total of 32 burpees in addition to those actual barbell movements.
Cashout. Triceps training 3x12. I want to get those handstand push-ups going well! This is my ancillary movement for that one.
Game Day. In the evening I have another floorball game. I dared to go to the Box and train hard because it's my turn to be the back-up goalie and let the youngster take his moment today.
Toni's workouts.
Front squats. 5-3-5-1 (80, 90, 90, 100kg). He also took a 110kg attempt, which failed.
Two days of rest and anxious to hit the Box. Toni suggested to take one of the most classic workouts: Fight Gone Bad. I didn't see any reason why not to so we both did it. It proved to be a nasty one. I took 1k row for starters for time of 3.27 before preparing my body for FGB.
Fight Gone Bad. Total of 277 points. In brackets you'll see the amount of reps for the three rounds.
Wall ball, 15kg plate thrusters (35, 28, 22 reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 35kg (20, 17, 12 reps)
Box jumps (22, 15, 12 reps)
Push press, 35kg (20, 10, 20 reps)
Row calories (16, 16, 12 reps)
In this workout you move from each of 5 stations after a minute. This is a 5-minute round from which a 1-minute break is allowed before repeating. There are 3 rounds in the workout. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of "switch", the athlete must move to the next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.
We did this one in the beginning of our crossfit careers, 27th July 2012. The difference between these two workouts were the order of the movements, this time we went in the order they were supposed to be done. And the box jump's height was 40cm last time, now it was 64cm. Originally it should be 60cm. We don't have a possibility to a 9kg wall ball so we modified it to 15kg plate with which we did thrusters to replicate the effort needed to wall ball.
I was exhausted. In July my shoulders were the ones that bailed me down, now it was my lower body. My upper body was feeling surprisingly good but my legs were burning already on the first round. The box jumps were the major reason for the difference between my two FGB's, there were 100 reps last time for the lower box (it was a bench) and now I had 49 reps to the real Rogue box.
I was better with the wall balls (67 - 85 reps), sumo deadlifts (48 - 49 reps) and rowing (46 - 48 reps). However, with push press I performed way better last time (85 - 50 reps) and box jumps (100 - 49 reps) but that we already covered why this happened. I'm surprised about the push presses. The difference can't be that last time we took the bar from a rack, this time from the floor, that bar is so light anyway. Maybe it's because of the order of the movements. Previously push press was the first movement and I was able to go for it with a "fresh" body. Today it was towards the end of the round as it is supposed to.
My guts were scorching on the second round and legs burning. Somehow I was able to get a grip of life again and push through. This workout is simply freaking rough. There was a lesson learned today. I must put more focus back on the basics: metabolic conditioning. I had to catch a breath once in a while during FGB and I don't like it. I'd like to push through from the beginning to the end and do as many reps as possible. I've gained muscles lately through weight increase but at the same time my focus has been too much on gaining bigger numbers on heavy lifts. I'm definitely going to put a lot of plates on the barbells in the future as well but a lot of effort should be put on metcons as well.
Here's the mid part of Toni's FGB, second round about to start
Toni's Fight Gone Bad. Total of 224 points. In brackets the amount of reps for the three rounds.
Wall ball, 15kg plate thrusters (30, 20, 16 reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull, 35kg (15, 8, 9 reps)
Box jumps (12, 10, 9 reps)
Push press, 35kg (15, 15, 13 reps)
Row calories (18, 15, 19 reps)
Toni's numbers went from 246 to 224. He also made it better this time. The reason for the difference was the height o the box jumps as well. I don't have exact numbers of his last repetitions but here you can see today's figures.
