Monday. Back squats 5x10 @ 90kg. Skills, 3rds of: 14 pistols, 20 ghd. Accessory, 400m walking lunges with weight vest.
Bradshaw destroyed my forearms the other day. My best guess is that my right forearm is in a bit of an inflammation mode right now. That has an effect on the things I was able to practice today. I was pumped up to do a bunch of stuff but turned up smart and listened to my body. Today was purely lower body oriented session due to circumstances.
Strength.
Back squats 5x10 reps @ 90kg
Touch'n'go style
This was a bit different action. Lots of reps with lighter weight. The thing was that breaks were not allowed on these sets. Just take it on your back, and pump it up and down for 10 reps. Weights was alright for today, last reps were nastier on the sets, especially the 4th and 5th set. This could have been heavier though but for now I'll take it. These weren't a walk in the park by any means.
Recap
Skills.
3 rounds of:
14 pistol squats, alternating
20 ghd sit-ups
Holy hip flexors. Both movements burdened those areas and they didn't get much recovery in the process. Changed the leg after every rep. Completed those without breaks but paced myself every round. Ghd's unbroken.
Accessory.
20x20m walking lunges (400m)
Wear a vest
I've done this before in the past. In the beginning this goes on nicely. After couple of rounds it gets tough. Legs burn a lot. Towards the end it just gets worse. The latter part is miserable. But it's definitely going to be good in the long run. In the evening my legs cramped continuously so the leg work for today was definitely on point.
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.
Sunday. Metcon, 5 rounds of: 450m run, 25 unbroken wall ball shots, 10 air squat. Wear a 9kg vest.
Sunday witnessed another outdoors metcon. I really enjoy working outdoors. There's some extra endorphin that flows in my body or something but it sure feels great to hit it in the fresh air. Today and yesterday it was raining while I was training but it doesn't matter. At all.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
450m run
25 unbroken wall ball shots
10 air squats
Wear a 9kg vest
I also had the climbing rope with me but due to the rain it didn't sound tempting to climb a wet rope up and down. And kettlebell had been in the play for two days in a row so it was wall ball's turn to move. I ran a different route for 450m per round and then came back to throw the ball.
Got to say the vest makes running a lot more painful than normal running. It smashes against the chest / heart on every bounce which makes breathing a bit more uncomfortable. That's the reason why I ran most of the time by holding the vest still with my hands. That made it easier to run.
Wall ball in the rain. Not that bad though, it wasn't raining that much. Plan was not to drop the ball at any point. 25 reps per round, go unbroken. I'm happy I followed this plan all the way. It was nothing but mental. First rounds were not difficult but towards the end the last reps started to burn shoulders. This was the first time ever doing wall balls with a vest. Traditionally my shoulders start to burn on this movement but legs hold on well. This time hamstrings started to fatigue as well. After wb's I did couple of air squats just to get the legs more tired.
Spent the weekend in Klaukkala, in the countryside and as you probably already know the surroundings are perfect for crossfit. This time it was a metcon with running and kettlebell snatches.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
400m run
5 right hand kettlebell snatch, 32kg
5 left hand kettlebell snatch, 32kg
Wear a 9kg weight vest
This was something I call fun. It's been time since playing around with the vest I got from my baby something like 2 years ago. Every now and then I go and get it from the cellar, put it on, and get to work. It gives classic movements a different edge for sure.
Running was for 400 meters, 200m back and forth basically. I brought my 2-pood bell with me. This was pretty much without a warm-up. Took couple of swings and snatches with it and got to work. Breathing was high as both running and kb action have their effect on the game.
Wednesday. Back squat (up to 5x138kg). Emom x 10min. Odd min, 10 hspu. Even min, 10 pistol. Metcon, 5rds of: 40m lunges, 10 burpee. Wear a vest. Time, 10.40.
Good long session of crossfit took place today in Vallila's premises. Couple of sets back squat to kick everything off. Then two workouts with bodyweight stuff. Good session for sure. My legs are killing me right now. That's a fact.
Strength.
Back squat
3x100kg
3x115kg
4x130kg
4x5x138kg
Okay, so there was going to be 5x138kg. For four times… Even though I have never lifted that much weight for 5 reps, this didn't scare me at all. When being able to do multiple triples at the same weight, and after having done lots of sets lately at this weight, I was confident of hitting at least the first sets as planned.
The 100kg and 115kg sets were more like warm-up stuff. I did them touch'n'go. Also 130kg set was no big deal anymore. This is very encouraging. Some time ago this would have needed mental preparation but now it's like an everyday load. Very encouraging. Awesome to look back every now and then to realize some development has taken place.
I'm not gonna say the 138kg sets were light. They weren't. But it was alright, form stayed rather good in all the sets and reps, elbows were down, knees out, and back in upright position. So there is no other option but to smile and walk away victorious.
Squats
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Odd minutes, 10 handstand push-ups
Even minutes, 10 pistol squats
This was a 50 / 50 rep workout of hspu's and pistol squats. Handstand push-ups were no problem. Unbroken, with a good feeling. It took 20 seconds to finish each set. Easy and steady pace in each set. Pistols were tougher. Those heavy squats definitely had an effect. On the first rep in my warm-up I fell on my butt. After taking couple of reps with each leg they started to feel okay. Not perfect in any of the sets but manageable. I went 5 with left legs and then 5 with right legs.
Metcon. Time, 10.40
5 rounds of:
40m walking lunges
10 burpee
Wear a 9kg vest
There were plenty of people doing lots of lunges with dumbbells in their hands. That intrigued me a lot so I decided to put on a 9kg vest and went 20 meters back and forth, then hit chest to deck for 10 burpees. Repeat for a total of 5 rounds. Rounds were steady which pleases me big time. Legs were beaten up. I refused to stop and breathe. Actually this wasn't as bad for breathing, it was mostly burning my legs. Pace was steady all the time.
Sunday. Emom x 21min. 1st min: 30 du, 2nd min: 10 pistols, 3rd min: 12 ghd. Emom x 15min: 20m lunges with a 10kg vest.
Today we went to the beach to enjoy the hot summer day. It was a great weekend in general. Lots of relaxation and good times with the family. We also went to see a friend who just got their firstborn couple of days ago. He was such an adorable little kiddo =) In the evening I went to the gym. Got to keep my elbows relaxed now, they are sore as hell.
Bodyweight.
Every minute on the minute x 21 minutes
1st min: 30 double unders
2nd min: 10 pistol squats (5/5)
3rd min: 12 ghd sit-ups
Story in short. Double unders sucked big time. Couldn't find the rhythm at any moment. One set was unbroken, the rest were troubled. Pistol squats went straight, 5 left and then 5 right. Ghd's were easy. Tried also ones with medball to get more resistance. Those felt awkward. Not heavy but the motion was somehow strange and it didn't feel good in my lower back so I did only one set with that ball.
Accessory.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
20m walking lunges with a 10kg vest
I still wanted to get something done, and weighted lunges came to mind. I had a barbell in my back for a test drive but that put too much stress on my elbows so I came up with the vest. 10kg extra weight. The grass matt is 20 meters long so I walked it back and forth for 15 minutes. That was a great quad burner.
Wednesday. AM: Strength, front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1. Farmer's walk 10x20m @ 70-80kg. Accessory, 4rds of: 10 glute ham raises, 15 ghd sit-ups. PM: Skills session of bar muscle-ups (5x5) and handstand.
I had a day off of work so it meant only one thing. It's gonna be two-a-day. There were some errands to be taken care of but I found the time to get a good session in in the early afternoon. It was a squat session combined with some strongman elements and accessory movements. In the evening we went to get with Pauliina and I focused totally on skills. Good one!
Strength.
Front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1
Triples @ 110kg
Doubles @ 120kg
Singles @ 125kg
This was tough. I took 60-90kg lifts from a dead stop in the bottom. Started from the hole, stood up and came back down. So it was totally vice versa than normal front squats. Without any bounce from the bottom it made it very difficult and a different type of stimulus. Probably a very good way to train I'd figure.
At 110kg it was triples, got them done in touch'n'go style and was very satisfied on these. Doubles at 120kg were a lot heavier. I took a breath on top before the second rep. And these were the slowest front squats ever. Definitely not even a slight bounce in the bottom. But form remained okay so I'll take 'em!
On the singles the first one was the heaviest. That startled me a bit but then I decided to man up and do the work as planned. Happy on how I got them done. These really got to me legs and they felt smashed already later in the day. Or was it because of farmer's walk, don't know but it feels good.
Front squat recap
Strongman.
10 x 20 meter farmer's walk
70-80kg per hand
I've done this movement once before. It was awesome that time. A lot lighter but it was intentional because it was a metcon spiced up with burpees. Today I went heavier and had 50kg extra weight on this handle that weighs either 20kg or 30kg. Don't know, I asked about it but didn't get a precise answer and haven't compared it to a normal barbell. Anyway, this was much different than the lighter load.
This is a full body workout to say the least. Legs are doing the work, core has to be very tight all the time. Posture has to be good and shoulders back. Grip needs to be strong. Don't know what part of the body this movement would not strengthen. Suits very well to crossfit. This is classic strongman stuff. You'll see farmer's walk in Rob Orlando's site all the time. And there is a reason for that.
This was 10 rounds of 20 meter carry. I didn't have a clock running for a purpose. Recovery was pretty much walking back and forth the grass mat. It was a good length. No need for too much recovery. Could go heavier on this one. It would be a good idea to have a training pal and do this alternating. We're gonna hit it one day with Jasper.
Farmer's walk
Accessory.
4 rounds of:
10 glute ham raises
15 ghd sit-ups
These legs are going to get stronger. Glute ham raises are one more tool to reach that goal. Farmer's walk and sled are also excellent ways to get there. These ghr's are brutal on hamstrings. I still need a resistance band to assist me do these. This was only the second time doing them. Hopefully soon I'll drop the band away and focus on doing them with bodyweight only. Once I got a set of ghr's done I changed sides and completed ghd sit-ups right after, then a pause before doing another round of this couplet.
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups 5x5
Handstand
Handstand walk
Strict weighted pull-ups
Couple of hours later I stepped in at the Box for a skills session. Muscle-ups were the first thing to focus on. Couple of sets of 5's. These felt easy in each session. And I got them done without stopping on top of the pull-up bar. My hands are ripped so had to use gloves to protect them.
It's been time since I was inverted for handstand so it seemed like a perfect decision to practice this demanding skill. I took a few sets of trying to stay as still as possible and then couple of sets to walking on my hands. In the end I put a weight vest on and did strict pull-ups as accessory movement.
Yesterday we had a great pair workout with Toni and it really feels in my body. Don't know it it was the push press or ring push-ups or the combination of them and high rep pull-ups but my shoulders and triceps are killing me. It feels great! I've been longing to have a barbell up overhead and yesterday I finally got to do it. I'm resting from squats so I really had no plans for today. At some point I thought about throwing wall ball outdoors but then we headed to the gym anyway.
I decided to get my weight vest with me after a long break of training with it. Smooth move, I liked it a lot. Brutal stuff, it makes training more harsh. I've got it from Pauliina about 2 years ago, love her! This was the first time it was on me while rowing or jumping on a box. Burpees are familiar with this equipment on.
What I had in mind was a longer metcon. I basically wanted to breath heavy and keep moving for a while, building engine. Rowing was somehow a little different with a vest. Breathing was more burdensome than normally. It was like my lungs weighed more. Or something, hard to describe.
Anyway, I got the machine moving pretty well after all. It was about 1:45 pace for 500m in most of the sets. Towards the end it was closer to 1:50 but it never went over that. This was by far the most challenging part of the workout. There was a total of 2.7km of rowing.
Box jumps were completed on the same height as regular jumps. With a vest on I decided to step down after each rep to prevent too hard impact on lower body. I kept moving on constantly which means to say I didn't rest or recover at any point, but jumped right up after stepping down.
Burpees are always a pleasure. No matter whether you have a vest or not. I wanted to have those because I know they make me breath heavily and get the adrenaline up. Luckily though, there were just 10 reps of them. The vest started to unravel on burpees as it was swinging back and forth as I dropped down chest to floor.
This combo of movements was exactly what I was looking for. After finishing the last 200m on the rower, I was definitely done and over this one! Good heavy breather as was the objective of this one.
I'm having high hopes of being able to push the barbell overhead somehow. Let's see how that turns out tomorrow.
Tuesday. Pirkkola outdoors metcon, 4rds of: 250m run, 10 pull-ups, 15 thrusters. Wear a 9kg weighted vest for the entire workout.
I was supposed to meet a friend to do some workout outdoors. There were some schedule problems so we postponed it to another day. Pauliina was ready to jump aboard so I picked her up and went to Pirkkola. This is an awesome place to workout, you might remember this venue from HC Triplet II and HC Triplet III.
Metcon.
4 rounds of:
250m run
10 pull-ups
15 wooden thrusters
Wear a 9kg weighted vest for the entire workout
The key of the day was variety. Have some fun and do the training somewhere else. Don't wanna hang around at the regular gym all day, every day. Yesterday was once again a day someone asked am I there every day. The answer is yes. But I love it. Enjoy doing it, otherwise I wouldn't do it. And luckily I have a woman who enjoys it too. It would be difficult to hang around at the gym in the evenings if she wouldn't attend.
Anyway, today we were supposed to go to Pirkkola with Marko but instead it turned out that Pauliina joined me. Not bad, it was great to do a workout outdoors for a while. Breathing was so different when having lots of fresh air to catch in the lungs.
My gear for today was sneakers, pull-up bar, 9kg weighted vest and a wooden bar for thrusters. I try to use my vest in outdoor metcons every now and then. The occasions have been too rare in my opinion. It makes the nature of the workout totally different. I felt like my heart was pumping with such strength and power every time it took a beat.
Catching air was easy and heart rate okay but the power with which the blood was conveyed from my heart to muscles was mad. It was like I felt every beat. Kind of like my heart would burst through my chest and the vest any second now =)
It's somehow very rewarding to sometimes go outside, make it old school and just move your own body or something you find from the nature. I love playing with heavy and semi-heavy barbells, no doubt about it. This is good variation though, and definitely worth doing occasionally.
This workout consisted of running, weighted pull-ups and thrusters with a wooden log that weighs couple of tens of kilos. Don't know, maybe the pressure was similar like doing 40kg thrusters with a bar. Running distance was somewhere around 250m and my vest was 9kg. I wore it all the time in the workout.
The pull-ups went nicely, unbroken each round. Haven't done weighted versions for a long time. Having a vest on instead of a plate hanging from waist was different so I was able to do kipping pull-ups.
Thrusters went also unbroken each round. The movement pattern is a bit different with regular thrusters. Hands do not go overhead in a perfect line where toes, hip and shoulders would be in line all the way. Anyway, naturally full squat was possible and then reaching as far up as possible. This metcon was a good smoker. Heart was doing a lot of work and definitely got strengthened once again. And I'm happy the movements went unbroken.
Now I realized there is a perfect place for wall ball throwing. Got to get me one. Maybe buy a basketball, empty it and fill with sand to make a homemade wall ball. In the picture above there were markings of 2.5m, 3.0m and 3.5m heights. Not bad!
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.
Friday. Complete 100 kettlebell swings with a 32kg kb for time. Every time you drop the bell, perform 12 burpees on the spot. Wear a 9kg weighted vest throughout the workout. Time 7.34.
Those high-rep heavy deadlifts on Wednesday really got to my hamstrings and lower back. As I woke up yesterday, those muscles were Stiff. I've been trying to stretch them and use some tips from mobility.wod to loosed them up. Still, today they were disturbing me. For starters I took 2 sets of pull-ups and then a kettlebell oriented metcon. On the pull-ups I did 2 sets of max strict reps with that vest on. Result was 8 reps both times. The first set was palms facing off and the second one palms facing me.
Metcon. Time 7.34, sets of 50, 20, 15, 15 swings
100 kb swings, 32kg
Every time you drop the bell, perform 12 burpees
Wear a 9kg weighted vest
Huh, I was afraid how this would feel because of those hamstring and lower back muscles hurting already in advance. Well, I had proper warm-up and was ready to start moving. Just as I was about to start my metcon I saw a girl having an accident at the gym. She dropped some weight on her head and started bleeding seriously from the back of her head. Luckily there was my neighbor at the gym as well to give some quick first aid to stop the bleeding. Hopefully everything is okay with her.
Back to the metcon. I was hoping to make it in 4 sets. The first set was naturally the best and longest. 50 swings made my heart beat but it was still okay. I started doing burpees immediately and was thinking about resting after those. The second set of swing was way tougher. I had to get 20 reps or more to stay in that 4-set scheme. My forearms started to feel very tense at this stage. Took another set of burpees to keep moving. The last burpees were heavy on this one.
There were 30 reps left with the swings. I decided to share it in half. Those 15 reps felt surprisingly bad. I did a lot of mental game inside my head to convince it's only 15 repetitions and the weight is not heavy, it's quickly over man. The last set of burpees was very tough. I had to rest for a while before I did them because my forearms were numb at this stage. Reps from 86 to 100 were disgusting. Had pretty much no strength left whatsoever but somehow I got the needed reps done.
Total of 100 swings with 32kg (3.200kg) and 36 burpees. All done with the weighted vest on. I'm telling you, it was far from convenient to keep that vest on after the workout. Had to get rid of it immediately. This got to my breathing quite efficiently and the most difficult part of it was the strength grip. I recommend to try it out!
Two-time champ is definitely out from this year's Games, it's a pity
This guy is still in, the 2-time champ is after his third in a straight in just one month time
Friday. 6 rounds of 500m row with 2:00 rest between sets. Metcon, 3rds of 10 burpees and 20 sit-ups, wearing a 9kg weight vest. Time 3.48.
Friday's program was all about metabolic conditioning. Rowing intervals as the main focus area. Total of 3k rowing in small pieces, trying to go all in. I also brought my weight vest to play a role in this training session. I utilized it for burpees and sit-ups. There has not been a single soul at the gym today nor yesterday since it's the finnish mid-summer holiday. The day is longest today, sun will not come down all day / night and people are pretty much at their summer cottages. We're also driving to the country side in the afternoon with Pauliina to meet with some friends.
Rowing. Times between 1.39-1.40.
6 rounds of 500m row
2:00 rest between rounds
My goal was to go fast each round, not looking to get a good average but to see how fast I can go and then try to maintain that speed through all 6 rounds. On the first round I was at 1.40 / 500m. On the second the same time. Actually, all 4 first rounds my time was identical, 1.40 on the clock =) At this stage I thought the following rounds I might lose a second or two but was actually able to drop 1 sec of the clock, reaching 1.39 on the last rounds. I was pretty wasted after the last round. I taped the first and fifth round, below you'll see some action from the 5th set.
Fifth set of rowing, time 1.39
Metcon. Timr 3.48
3 rounds of:
10 burpees
20 sit-ups
Wear a 9kg weighted vest
Quick metcon in the end with burpees and sit-ups. Didn't want to take any barbell / dumbbell / kettlebell work today, simply focusing on bodyweight movements spiced with a 9kg vest. What's a better conditioning movement than burpees? It's pretty much the best. Sit-ups as a friend for those burpees. The nature of both movements is different when you wear a vest. Haven't done many vest burpees, definitely wears a man out better and quicker than a traditional burpee. Surprisingly those sit-ups got to my core, even though there were only 60 of them. Guess it was simply the extra weight that had to be carried. Go figure, have to try them more to find the answer. Should utilize this vest more anyway, it seems to be an awesome equipment!
Monday. Front squats (max 120kg). EMOM hang squat cleans. Double unders and toes-to-bar.
My goal today was to give my quads and upper back some action. Decision was to go with front squats and then Every Minute On the Minute type of training with hang squat cleans. Toni felt the stress from earlier days and took it light in the morning.
Hang squat cleans on the agenda
Strength. Front squats 3-3-3-2-1 (80, 100, 110, 120, 120kg). For some reason front squat today wasn't my thing. Once I took the bar in the front rack position I felt the weights pushing me down. Don't know what this was. I took triples up to 110kg but only a 2-rep set at 120kg and finally a single one with the same weight. I didn't want to push it with force as it clearly wasn't going to be a success. I changed to my main workout of the day, hang squat cleans.
EMOM. Hang squat cleans for 12min with 60kg and 70kg.
12 minutes
4 hang squat cleans every minute with one grip
For 7 first rounds with 60kg
For last 5 rounds with 70kg
For the first round I accidentally did power cleans but from round 2 on, I did only squat cleans. By doing them as squat versions I got respiration to bounce semi-heavy as well. For the first rounds I did it with 60kg but decided to upgrade it with 10kg for the last 5 rounds. I'm actually very proud I was able to do all those reps (all 48 of them) unbroken. Maybe I should have had that 70kg on the bar from the very beginning. Well, that would have been very difficult to do unbroken. I noticed my grip started to get a bit challenging towards the end.
It was also smart to do these movements as squat versions because successive squat clean repetitions tend to turn heavy on breathing and grip. Plus I haven't done that many squat cleans anyway. Got to get familiar and comfortable with them because the heavier it gets, the more probable it is that I must squat under the bar. Currently my clean PR is 85kg and it is a power clean. Normally athletes' PR's are squat cleans but for some unknown reason I've been doing power cleans for most of the time.
Cashout. DU's and T2B's, for quality, with minimum rest.
3 rounds of
45 double unders
10 toes-to-bar
After some chilling I decided to do some double unders and toes-to-bar. This time not for time but for quality with minimum rest between sets. On the first round I did 45 reps before I stumbled once. I decided to keep that number in all rounds and went unbroken up to that number. Between sets I did 10 T2B's. Good quick workout to close the training.
After work we went for a half an hour walk with Pauliina. I put on the 9kg vest just to get some extra effort from the stroll =)
Toni's workouts.Benchmark wod Annie.
Annie. 8.32
He did it mostly unbroken with the double unders. Only two times messing up with the jump rope. He improved his time from last time with 25 seconds.
After a tough week of training I wanted to leave the barbells alone and train with bodyweight. Okay, I added the weighted vest I got from Pauliina earlier this month. I had some training buddies with me to concentrate in strength training. Toni stayed home today.
Weighted dips
Metcon. Not for time.
3 rounds of
10 push-ups
10 burpees
10 ring dips
10 dumbbell snatches, 20kg, alternating hands
Wear a 9kg weighted vest during workout
My clock was not running but I still made it without resting more than normally. Three rounds with 9kg vest on me, all but on the last set of ring dips. Four different movements each round. Push-ups weren't too bad, burpees felt odd as I dropped my chest to the floor with that extra weight on me. I managed to do these unbroken but I really felt that weight.
I didn't think about how bad the ring dips might turn out to be but they were quite burning on my triceps and chest. On the first round I completed them in 5+3+2 but on the second one I had huge problems and completed them almost totally in singles. That's the reason why I took the vest off on the last set of ring dips, which turned out to be a good decision. I completed the last set of dips pretty much the same way as the first set.
Those dumbbell snatches are my thing. I love them, got to keep on doing those and add weights. That 20kg was too light I'd say considering the amount of reps. Either add kilos or reps.
