Friday 4.12: Thrusters, Mu's, Snatch, Hspu, Pistols

Friday. Thruster ladder, 8min amrap of ascending weights. Result, 43 reps. Metcon, 5rds of: 3 bar mu, 5 power snatch (40kg), 7 hspu, 10 pistols.

Weekend is coming and I'm loving it! Today was a good session at the gym. When I was warming up I accidentally heard from one of the coaches that floorball team Tapanilan Erä is coming to train to the gym. I knew there are some old pals that I used to play with in a different team. It was great to see those guys and throw some small talk while we threw down. Great times! These are the guys I miss from playing floorball seriously. The people around us.

Rosendahl!

Barbell conditioning. Result, 43 reps (3x80kg)

• 8min amrap of:
• 10 thruster, 40kg
• 10 thruster, 50kg
• 10 thruster, 60kg
• 10 thruster, 70kg
• 10 thruster, 80kg
• 10 thruster, 90kg… 

Winter War qualifications are now taking place which means they are trying to find out who are the toughest crossfit athletes in Finland. The contest is in February but qualification is taking place now in December. This was event 1 maybe three years ago. This year it was similar with the difference that the weights started at 50kg. Otherwise the same ideology exists. I figured I'd get a better workout by starting at 40kg to get some heavy breathing.

Tapanilan Erä

Went unbroken on the first two sets, both at 40kg and 50kg. Those were pretty self-evident beforehand as I thought about this. It's been time since doing 60kg thrusters so it was a mystery how those would feel like. My warm-up wasn't perfect and I felt my elbows being very tight. After doing 40kg thrusters for couple of sets in the warm-up and stretching a little more, they started to cooperate.

However, I had to power clean the barbell on the front rack before starting the first repetition. Ideally I would squat clean the bar but it makes it more challenging to get a full grip and having an ideal grip to press the barbell up and overhead. 60kg was 6-4 reps.

At 70kg the barbell was clearly heavier but I got through the set with 4-3-3 reps. Last weight was at 80kg, and I had to go for singles for each rep completed. Legs were good all the way, those felt strong all the time. Shoulders are my weaker part compared to legs and core and it was not surprise that upper body bailed on me on the thrusters finally. It was difficult to know how much to rest between attempts. Didn't wanna burn my shoulders out totally but then again it's not cool to have too long of a break.

Thruster ladder

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 3 bar muscle-ups
• 5 power snatch, 40kg
• 7 handstand push-ups
• 10 pistol squats

This was inspired by Bobby Noyce's workout that I saw in Youtube yesterday. This was a little modification compared to that. He also had overhead squats after snatches, and muscle-ups were completed at the rings. Those bar muscle-ups felt in my core after doing 100 ghd's yesterday. Maybe there's a correlation between those. Bar mu's were as perfect as are in my case. I was proud of those for sure.

Last thruster done

Snatches were light but in the course of action it was probably a good weight as after those it was time to throw myself upside down against the wall for hspu's. My butt is still a bit sore but it definitely didn't bother at all. It was awesome to do pistols, it's such a freaking good movement. Everything went unbroken and that was the goal for sure. Didn't have a timer rolling. That didn't change the nature of the workout a bit. This was my best effort for today.

Monday 29.7: Thruster ladder, hspu, box

Monday. Thruster ladder, 10 x 40, 50, 60 & 70kg for time. Time 6.15. Metcon, 5 rds of: 1min amrap of hspu, 1min amrap of box jumps. Result 26 hspu, 100 box.

Wanted to put something tough on the table after a rest day and after watching the Games during the weekend. Name of the game was thrusters. I've done thruster ladder once in February, repeated today together with Toni. Then a metcon together with him as well, hspu's and box jumps. This training day was hard on every meter and I loved it!

Battle going on

Thruster ladder. Time 6.15. Compare to 25.2.2013

• 10 reps of 40, 50, 60 & 70kg

I had similar strategy today when I took off. Go unbroken with the 40 & 50kg sets. I did, no problems. It took about one and a half minutes to finish them. I did them quicker because there was shorter transition time compared to last time. Toni advised to not to take the 10kg plates off but to just add 5kg plates when moving on to 50kg. That was a clear time saver. Once I was ready with 10 unbroken 50kg thrusters, I took all weight off and changed them to 20kg weights.

Barbell still felt good at 60kg. I was aiming for 6 reps and all of a sudden started to think whether I would try to smash it unbroken all the way. Decided to stick with the plan anyway and dropped to catch a breath after 6 reps. Good call I think, would have been tough to get it and the consequences might have been bad, there was 70kg set waiting for me.

On the 70kg I decided to by feeling. Hit 4 reps for starters, then a triple and another triple. The barbell was clearly lighter than last time. I just watched the videos of 60 / 70kg thrusters from February and it looked agonizing. Today it felt "comfortable" :)

My breathing was heavy for sure but there was strength in me that was able to move the weight in a more classy way. Our set up for the ladder was totally different than it has ever been. We placed two barbells to face each other and decided to go at the same time. That was a fun feature 'cause we are usually doing the work by ourselves, or simultaneously but then it's usually different workouts. This is mostly because of the circumstances at the gym, there's simply not enough space to go at the same time.

I was able to cut off 3 minutes and 15 seconds from my last time. Couldn't be happier!

Metcon. Result 26 hspu, 100 box

• For 10min with a running clock
• 1 min amrap of handstand push-ups (10, 5, 4, 4, 3reps)
• 1min amrap of box jumps, 61cm (22, 18, 20, 20, 20reps)

This was the workout we did after some rest time. For 10 minutes, we alternated 2 movements, hspu's and box jumps. I started with hspu's and Toni went after box jumps. After one minute amrap we changed parts. Continued for 10 minutes so there were 5 rounds for both movements. I really got my cardio share today, box jumps sealed the deal and my shoulder strength was non-existing in the end. I started the handstand push-ups with strict style but quickly changed into kipping mode. Completed 10 reps on the first set, current shared PR, felt good, even after all those thrusters.

Just got this one through mail, the champ's book, awesome!

Toni's workout.

• Same workouts.
• Time on the thrusters, 14.58
• Metcon, 11 hspu (5, 3, 0, 2, 1 reps). Box jumps 66 (15, 15, 12, 12, 12 reps)

Toni almost fell on one rep with the box jumps so he kind of tried to get his shit together on the third set of handstand push-ups. He used a foam roll to scale the hspu's. On the thrusters he went nicely on 40 and 50kg, he completed the 60kg in sets of 2 and 3 reps. The heaviest reps were done in singles.

Wanted to give you some insight of the guy behind the last three wins in the Crossfit Games, 2011-2013. Rich Froning Jr. is The Man, no doubt he has earned his trophies the past years.

The last workout, 12th out of 12 events

The champ

Froning's highlights at the 2013 Games

And now we know the answer in how to beat Rich Froning. You don't…

Would have loved to see our very own champ from 2009 - Mikko Salo - challenge him! But he suffered an injury just a week prior to the Games

Monday 25.2: Thruster ladder

Monday. Thruster ladder. Time 9.30.

My goal was to get my breathing flow fast and also test my strength level at the same time. Probably the best movement with a barbell for this one is thrusters. As if my shoulders weren't already smashed after this I took a cashout in the end to burn them even more. Toni's training today consisted of squats and a box jumps / ring push-up metcon.

Elias doing sit-ups

Ladder. Time 9.30.

• Complete the following thruster ladder for time
• 10 x 40kg
• 10 x 50kg
• 10 x 60kg
• 10 x 70kg

I can't think about a more comprehensive movement than thrusters. Well, okay maybe snatches as well. I took a ladder consisting of 10 reps at each weight, completing 4 weight steps, starting from 40kg and finishing at 70kg. First set went unbroken in short time. I took my time to change the plates in no rush because I figured hurrying with this one would cause troubles later on in the workout. The set of 50's went unbroken as well. Same thing, I didn't rush with the plate changing operation.

Thrusters, 60kg

The third set - 60's - went in two parts, 6 reps and 4 reps. This went well too, my time at this stage was 4-5 minutes. I had thought about this beforehand that this set should not bring troubles but I also knew it's gonna take at least two attempts to finish it. The last set with 70kg on the barbell was naturally the toughest. However, the clean part of it was surprisingly easy, this really boosted my confidence! Each time I had to bring the bar back up to my chest, I had no troubles with it. It was clearly the press part of the movement that I had difficulties with. I completed the set with 3 reps to start with, followed by something like 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1. I took one failed attempt at some later stage of this set.

Thrusters, 70kg

Why haven't I done more thrusters? Maybe because they are horrible =) Should do them though because they are not nice but they develop me as an all-around athlete. This workout showed me something. It wasn't my breathing that hindered me from going faster but it was my shoulders that were burning. I consider this rather good thing that my metabolic conditioning should be at a rather good level currently. I was ready with the set of 60's after 4-5 minutes and it took about the same time to finish the last set. I had to keep a bit longer breaks because I didn't want to take any failed reps in between.

Cashout. Unbroken double unders and wall climbs.

• 5 x 20 unbroken double unders
• 10 wall climbs

In the end I wanted to do 5 sets of 20 unbroken double unders. My first set was 12 reps, lack of concentration. Then I finished the workout straight away without any stumbling. The last thing I wanted was to give that extra pressure on my shoulders and wall climbs are just a perfect way of doing that. 10 reps and I was done. Good training day!

Toni's workouts. Back squats for strength and a metcon. Time 6.11.

• Strength: back squats 7 x 5 (100kg each set)
• Metcon, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
• Box jumps, 64cm
• Ring push-ups

Back squat, 100kg, Toni

A friend of mine - Elias - is recovering from a knee injury and wanted to enhance the heeling by doing crossfit workouts. I planned two workouts for him for today. We had to be careful with the movements as his knee is still loose and can't take any hit. What a brave guy as normally people would still be laying in the bed but this dude is at the Box giving his everything! This movements do not stress his knee too much. A little pressure is only a good thing =) I'm proud of this man!

Workout 1.

• 5 rounds of
• 5 bench press
• 5 shoulder press
• 20 sit-ups

Workout 2.

• 10min amrap of
• 10 kettlebell swings
• 10 hand release push-ups
• 10 dumbbell snatches, alternating hands