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.
Thursday. Emom x 15min: 1st min 5 deads (150kg), 2nd min 10 hspu, 3rd min 30 du. Right into 15min amrap of walking lunges with 20kg vest. Result, 287m.
Thursday's program was supposed to be meathead oriented. Deads and bench. It turned out both bench racks were taken so I skipped that and changed plans on the fly. Original plan was 12min emom of deads and bench, then 10min amrap of lighter deads, hspu's and du's. This was pretty similar.
Metcon.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes:
1st min: 5 deadlifts @ 150kg
2nd min: 10 handstand push-ups
3rd min: 30 double unders
This was a nice combo. It's been some time since previous deadlifts. Those made my back sore for days and for some reason it has not been on my program since. Today the 150kg pulls felt great. Light weight. There are two rips in my fingers so I stayed at this point to prevent them get torn even more.
Hspu's were good too. I thought about 12 reps also at some point. I've been missing these guys. Prior to double unders I have been foam rolling my shins lately. It has improved my du's tremendously. The difference has been huge compared to not foam rolling the shins. It even felt like "how have I ever stumbled on these jumps". Felt very natural and like I could have continued to jump forever. This metcon brought my breathing up during the 15 minutes.
Last round of the emom wod
Lunges. Result, 287 meters
15 minute amrap of:
Walking lunges with 20kg weight vest
Didn't have any break in between. Just put the weight vest on and started walking down and back the 20m grass matt. Went unbroken for ever 20m leg, then took couple of breaths and continued back. This felt awful already after 40 meters. My quads were burning big time. I'm not quite sure how heavy the vest is. Either 20kg or 30kg.
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.
I woke up in to this day with a relaxing mind and had a peace in my mind as I thought about the upcoming training session. Then it hit me. It's gonna be ten sets of back squats, doup! That brought some anxiety but of course in a good way =) Decided also to do longer sets of overhead squats. Short metcon was predetermined but the accessory lunges were just a bonus round.
It was gonna be a tough day for this body. Ten sets are usually no joke. And triples tend to be more on the heavier side. And they were today as well. I was aiming to smash them at 130kg all the way. But on my way climbing up to that weight I took couple of lighter sets and counted them on anyway.
Got to say the last 3-4 sets were nasty. Especially the last rep. Damn. But I made it through all the sets without misses. I almost asked for a spotter in the last set but then decided to stop bitching and do the work. Actually the last one wasn't the worst, it was the last sets before that.
Squat recap
OHS.
Overhead squat 3x10 (40, 50, 60kg)
This was cool. I'd like to see where my max load would be on this movement for a high rep set like this. This was definitely not max. It felt great to do some empty bar squat snatches after squatting a lot because my hips were as open as they could possibly be. And it wasn't too bad for overhead squats either.
My elbows have been quite sore for the past two days so I didn't dare to go heavier on this one. These felt good anyway and no pain. I felt it in my elbows more in the back squats than overhead squats. It's also very beneficial to do pause squats on overhead squats. It will definitely make the bottom position of snatch / ohs a comfort zone.
Metcon. Result, 81 reps (5 rounds + 4 hspu)
7min amrap of:
7 burpee box jump
7 handstand push-ups
For conditioning this seemed perfect, and it actually was. It got tough because there were pushing motion in both movements. I reckoned I'll smash the handstand push-ups unbroken and then pace myself on the burpee box. I didn't not realize burpees would have an impact on the hspu's and that they would get much tougher.
Burpee box jumps were thus easier. They were a good conditioning part and no doubt my heart beat took big jumps up when I started the workout. My result was 3 reps shy of 6 full rounds. I remember it was probably 3 rounds unbroken on the hspu's, then it was 5-2 on the 4th round, and 4-3 on the 5th round. Last round I just tried to get as many as possible in the remaining time and was able to tho those 4 reps to finish at 81 total reps in 7 minute time frame. I felt success on this one.
Accessory.
8x12m lunges with 2x25 dumbbells
This is something I haven't done this far but realized it's a good accessory stuff on a day after killing legs anyway. Sled and / or farmer's walk would be other elements worth considering. Those are more like strongman tools.
These got a little spicy, and I felt it in my butt cheeks. Later I went outdoors for a short walk and noticed my right quad was inches away from cramping. Probably due to a lot of pressure on lower body today. Felt good about it!
Tuesday. AM: Clean complex, 1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean + 1 squat clean (up to 95kg). Emom x 10min: 1 squat clean @ 100kg. Metcon, 6 rds of: 10 deads (60kg), 10 front rack lunges (60kg), 10 burpee. Time, 11.40.
PM: Front squat triples (max 120kg). Metcon, 5 rds of: 8 hspu, 12 pull-ups, 16 ghd sit-ups. Time, 10.52
I woke up in the morning like I was about to go to work. Okay, I did but not to to my workplace. Instead, it was time to put some Rogue apparel on and head to Eltsu for a good morning grind. Afterwards I drove to Klaukkala to assist the in-laws in cleaning their house up. Aftermath of the big spring cleaning. Plus it's time to change those winter tires to summer versions so I went tire shopping with Kari. In the afternoon we went to train at Optimal Performance Center (OPC) for another session of the day.
Clean complex.
Build up on the following complex:
1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean + 1 full squat clean
Weights: 40, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95kg
Considering my max loads on clean these weren't too serious weights. Power clean is pretty close to max load (1RM is 103kg from one week ago) but that didn't bring any issues. Those felt quite good all the way. Squat cleans were further away from my one rep max (squat clean 1RM is currently 115kg).
However, after racking the barbell on my shoulders as power clean, it's not that easy for me to get a good grip for the second rep, let alone the third one. Yes, it would be easy to get an open hand grip but that's not what I'm looking for. I want to have hook grip in order to have stronger grasp on the bar.
That is exactly why this was a great exercise for me to practice re-gripping the barbell on its way back down from front rack position to hips. This wasn't bad for my legs, this was more like a way to work on that strong grip and transition from one rep to another. Efficiency. I'm happy I was able to hit 95kg. There the last rep had some issues on the grip so I stopped it there and moved on.
Complex recap
Clean.
Every minute on the minute, for 10 minutes:
1 squat clean @ 100kg
Wasn't done with cleans though! Decided to add 5 more kilos to get 100kg. Then, I put the timer running and took one rep at a time, one rep per minute and recovered for the remaining minute. It was a total of 10 minutes. It was cool to get these rather heavy cleans done more than couple of reps.
It was kind of bipolar mentality. First half of them were light and I thought about adding load but then decided to stick to the plan anyway. The latter half were not that heavy either but I had some issues racking the bar as I wanted in the last reps. But they were okay too so this went actually quite well in general.
Cleans
Metcon. Time, 11.40
6 rounds of:
10 deadlift, 60kg
10 front rack lunges, 60kg
10 burpee
Once again this place is great because there's plenty of space so it allows you to do various kinds of stuff that are not possible in my regular gym. One of these things is walking lunges with a barbell. It doesn't matter if it's front rack, back rack of overhead lunges. They all kick ass. I've done them mostly outdoors in Klaukkala as there's a big grass field or some sort of park so it's easy to go after these.
Last week I did overhead lunges, now it was a bit heavier front rack lunges. I piled up 60kg on the barbell and decided to combine deadlifts and lunges as barbell movements, and then burpees to make it a real conditioning session. This really took my breath away.
There are usually heavier deadlifts in my metcons so this 60kg (135lbs) was very light. However, it was surprising how that started to weigh much more during the workout. I got them unbroken anyway, would not have accepted anything else.
Front rack lunges were great! It's mostly been exactly overhead lunges but these one notch heavier front rack lunges made my butt cheeks hurt. It's difficult to describe where this hurt most. The entire body must work together, from legs to shoulders, breathing also becomes an issue. Have to be very tight and tense all over the body, and core must be strong in order to keep the bar in the front rack instead of dropping it too much in front.
Burpees are always a pleasure. In this one they just increased heart beat to the roof. There's no mystery to knocking burpees. Just pace yourself and keep moving. No reason to stop. I'm happy on how the pace of this workout stayed alright throughout the 11-12 minutes. The feeling inside got worse by the minute and it took some time to recover afterwards but it was a very good metcon for conditioning, hands down!
Strength.
Front squat
3x90, 100kg
5x110kg
3x115, 120, 90kg
We decided to start going to this new place I wrote about last week. It's called Optimal Performance Center (OPC). Some of the days we'll hit it here and some days at our workplace. And once the spring / summer gets further, I'll definitely do some outdoor training as well. This new place has perfect prerequisites for crossfit training. Only things they are missing are wall balls and ropes. Other than that it's everything you'd like to have.
My butt cheeks were almost cramping during the day so maybe hitting front squats wasn't the smartest decision but I still decided to stick to my original plan. This was totally by feeling. This was light weight. It went okay but I was a bit conservative as the morning already took some of my energy away from lower body.
Metcon. Time, 10.52
5 rounds of:
8 handstand push-ups
12 pull-ups
16 ghd sit-ups
Ghd sit-ups are my new favorite. It's something I've been dreaming of for about 2 years now. Haven't had the possibility to do them anywhere at all. It has looked so cool when those pro guys and girls have done it that I thought it's a must thing. This was the second time in this place and second time of jumping on ghd sit-ups.
Combination turned out to be hspu's, pull-ups and ghd's. This too, was a great combination of movements. At first there were pistols included in this triples instead of some other element (don't remember anymore what it replaced) but this worked well too.
My hspu's are on a level that these sets didn't burn me too much. At first I had planned on hitting bigger sets of every movement for 3 rounds but this 5-rounder kept me moving better and faster as everything went unbroken. This way I got much more intense of this. There's a time and place for bigger sets too, definitely.
On pull-ups I was practicing in keeping my feet together and bringing them much stronger back on my way down to gain more momentum for the motion. It feels more efficient when using a stronger kip than before. No wonder…
I'm very happy on how those ghd's seem to be a strong side for me. Got through all these 5 sets unbroken and without hesitation. There was a little walk around the gym between all three stations but once I got to the core station I climbed on and started doing reps right away.
Spending quality time in Klaukkala. Couldn't leave the sled alone because it's perfect tool for heavy breathing and burning legs. It's an easy day of celebration of May Day's eve. Eating, relaxing with close people and sports of course. All I need for life!
Metcon. Not timed
4 rounds of:
30m sled pull
10 burpee
30m sled pull
20 front rack walking lunges (40kg)
The sled itself is around 20-25kg. I had about 35kg worth of tools inside as a load: kettlebells, dumbbells, and plates. Let's say it was around 60kg in total.
This was definitely a leg burner. All movements took energy out of my lower body. My breathing was heavy all the way. The combo of dragging the sled and then lifting the bar in front rack position was not tempting idea. But that was part of it so just do it.
Toughest part was exactly that. My legs were exhausted on the lunges. Burpees were the easiest part, kinda light. But the sled was definitely worth building it. I'm glad we were able to come up with something this good and solid construction work with Kari :)
Another training day in Klaukkala. the surroundings have little by little gotten perfect. We finished our own little sled project yesterday and it turned out to be a great leg smoker. We played around with it yesterday and today I took a metcon with this new tool. In addition to the metcon I did some strict pull-ups while playing darts, something every now and then to stay active.
Skills.
Handstand
I took some handstand training before getting some real work done. Had some difficulties in stabilizing my body, especially in the beginning as I was training on a slightly inclined platform. The grass area on the back yard is quite flat but there's some variance to indoor training matts. With my skills there's a difference. Once I found a more flat grass it felt much better.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
20m sled pull
10 kettlebell swings, 32kg
20m sled pull
20m front rack lunges, 40kg
Before I've had difficulties in getting my legs burn in Klaukkala. Kettlebell swings make a good shock to lower body but other than that it's been pretty much bodyweight movements and my legs have been mostly saved. With the help of our new sled it was a totally different thing. Add lunges with a barbell in front rack position, and my lower body was smashed!
Didn't have a timer rolling but I went through this one with the same intensity anyway. Breathing was heavy, legs were jacked and it was the classic overall bad feeling that crawled in at some point of the workout. It felt good and I was very satisfied of the influence this metcon brought.
I ran with the sled back and forth for 20 meters. On the other end I did kettlebell swings with 2-pood bell and on the other end completed lunges with Kari's new barbell. This grass area is a little inclined so it was a slight downhill, and then a slight uphill back to starting point.
This workout was cool and I'm sure the sled will come handy in the future as well. It was very firm and I'm guaranteed you can load it up with lots of iron inside. It won't break. It seems to weigh something like 30kg or more, I'd say. I loaded it with kettlebells worth 34kg. Kari was doing his share of working out at the same time. It's pretty awesome Pauliina's mom and dad both workout several times a week, that's something to show respect for.
Recap of the metcon
Another thing to look up on these two is they had their 30th anniversary today. Unbelievable thing, congrats! Some day we'll celebrate that with Pauliina too =)
Tuesday. AM: Overhead squat 3-3-2-2-1-1 (max PR 70kg). Back squat, emom 3 reps @ 100kg for 10min. Metcon, overhead walk, pistols, front rack lunges, hspu. Time 12.58. PM: row 2k easily, elbow levers, mobility, stretching.
Uuh mama! Another shot to train @ Liikuntamylly. The place is spectacular, can't describe it well enough. Now I'm probably getting close to the feeling of people working out at a regular crossfit box. Only imagination is a limiting factor because you have everything there. That's why my workouts today were a bit different. Overhead squats (possibility to drop weights) and the elements of the metcon are impossible for me to carry out at my home gym. In the evening I went to gym for elbow levers and mobility,
Warm-up.
Run 800m, then 3 rounds of:
10 push-ups
20 air squats, then:
50 wall balls, 5kg
This was a good set to get some blood running in my veins. Running for starters, feels good as normally I get to cycle or row to begin with. That wall ball was also a little twist. Unfortunately that ball was the heaviest, otherwise I would have nailed Karen at some point.
Strength. Overhead squats 3-3-2-2-1-1 (40, 50, 55, 60, 65, PR 70kg). Yes! I tried this about a month ago, that time I also shared previous record of 65kg but failed on the 70kg. Today on my first attempt of 70kg my core collapsed, then shoulders and that made me drop the bar. After half a minute of desperation I realized I'm in the best place to work out, I'm having my PR shirt on and above all, this should be fun. I went back to the barbell, took it in back rack, jerked it up, got my lunges full of air and did what I came here for. It might have been a bit shy of parallel. I'm not used to do squats without mirrors so it was difficult to know. My overhead squats are deep nowadays but this might have been some cents short. Anyway, it felt very good!
Back squat emom. Back squat, 3 reps every minute on the minute @ 100kg for 10 minutes.
Yesterday evening I planned to go for front squat singles as well but then realized it's more vital to work on my hamstring and posterior chain in general to some day squat 150kg. That's my goal to say it out loud. I need to work with semi heavy loads and get more reps. The load today was pretty good for me. I really like the emom training method because it gets to your breathing, muscles durability and strength in the long run.
I went for 10 minutes. Had no problems to lift that 100kg each minute. A total of 30 reps. Next time I might add some weight, 105-110kg. Good pressure on my hamstrings. And my goal was to go as deep as possible, definitely below parallel.
Metcon. Time 12.58
4 rounds of:
25m walk, barbell overhead carry, 40kg
5/5 pistol squats
25m lunges, with bar in front rack position, 40kg
5 handstand push-ups
This was sick. I realized after first round it's gonna be tough, especially on legs. I had this totally planned yesterday except for the pistols. Had an empty space there so I went to ask Pauliina what she would throw in there. The answer was cruel. Those pistols changed the game pretty much. Going for weighted front rack lunges after that made my legs burn deeply.
The first element - overhead carry - was a little light. Would have been perfect with maybe 60kg. Then it would have been tough as well. However, I had to use the same barbell so 60kg would have been a disaster in the lunges part. On the first round my pistols were a bit shaky, then it got better. Tougher but with better and smoother technique.
On the first round those lunges went unbroken, the remaining round I had to drop the bar once each round. Handstand push-ups went unbroken which pleases me a lot. I did some strict reps each round and once it started to get on my triceps I changed it to kipping hspu's.
This morning session was at least as spectacular as yesterday. Another PR saw day the light and I got to work on my lower body very well. No need to rush, I took my time in the cooling down as well. I ran for 1.000m and stretched as well.
Row, levers, mobility. After working hours Pauliina had scheduled hitting the gym so I joined her but was determined to take it easy. Rowing 2k with a slow pace to start with. I intentionally kept the pace close to 2:00 / 500m, with a smaller damper setting that normally, it took me 7.53 to finish it. Just to activate the body and get ready for stretching.
I got carried away with elbow levers, inspired from Prasara Yoga, I've added some video clips lately. It is an awesome movement to get to know your body, core and balance. I've been working on that one-handed elbow lever, same today. One of my friends showed 2-handed elbow levers as an example so I gave it a shot and succeeded in the movement at first try! Tried it twice, felt pretty natural actually. I'm gonna work on that one-handed lever progression in the future as well. Good work for core, balance and definitely on shoulders.
Workout. 10 to 1, down by 1's. Scaled hspu, toes-to-bar. For completion
Toni completed clean triples, power cleans as always. He's done squat cleans with mainly warm-up weights only. It came up nicely up to 70-75kg. On the 80kg bar he missed that third rep twice but after he realized it was only a mental game, he finished the last set with style. He had the bar high enough on the earlier sets as well but just didn't go under the bar quickly enough.
On the workout / metcon, it was purely for completion, not for time. Handstand push-ups wrere scaled to a foam roll. There were 55 reps both movements. Starting from 10 reps, coming down to 1 rep, down by 1 rep at a time.
For some reason that workout I did the day before yesterday still takes its toll on my legs. I tried to stretch them but still my walking is not pretty =) Anyway, that's only a good feeling as I know a lot of work has been done. This muscle pain had a lot of effect on today's programming. Bench press singles was what I started with and then the metcon included 3k row and semi-heavy bench presses. Tony didn't show up in the morning, we'll have to see if he's doing his training in the evening. Pauliina joined the workout.
Strength. Bench press 1-1-1-1-1-1 (70, 80, 85, 90, 95, PR 97.5kg). Also tried 100kg, didn't come up this time. I had not planned to do singles but I changed my mind as I entered the gym. It turned out to be a good decision as I hit a new personal record, adding 2.5kg to previous one, now it's 97.5kg.
I took some high-rep sets with only the bar, then 40 and 60kg before moving on to singles. The only purpose was to find that one rep max load at the moment. It seems to be quite close to 3-digit numbers, I'm getting there some day.
Bench press, PR 97.5kg
Metcon. Time 20.40
3 rounds of:
1.000m row
15 bench press, 70kg
Following the strength training I did a rather long metcon with rowing and bench press. I was thinking about the amount of rounds and the bench reps. Decided on the above except that I had planned to do only 10 bench presses. On the first round I continued to 15 and stayed with that rep scheme till the end. My rowing times per rounds were 3.30, 3.37 and 3.41.
On the bench first round was 6+5+4, on the second it was 6+5+2+2 and it was 6 reps on the first try, then a triple and maybe singles from then on, it started to get heavy all of a sudden. I didn't mind about the clock running so I took some time in the transition. That bench press seemed to suck my time as I couldn't do them unbroken. I still consider the weight was ideal for me. It was as heavy as I wanted it to be. Had I done it with 60kg, it would have been too light.
This proved to me it's possible to find some good workouts with bench press as well. I'm not going to add bench in to my schedule a lot more but I'll try to do it once in a while to add strength in chest, shoulders and triceps.
Did some mobility and stretching with Pauliina in the end.
Toni's workouts. Time 8.36
200m run
10 pull-ups
200m run
10 wood thrusters
200m run
25 weighted lunges
200m run
50 double unders
200m run
Pony went outdoors in the evening to do a metcon. Got some pictures from it below.
Friday. AM: 1min on, 1min off for 20 minutes: thrusters, 60kg. PM: Weighted lunges and sit-ups.
This has been a good week of training. I've had the possibility to sleep more than before. On two morning's I haven't gone to the Box as on Monday we trained after work and Wednesday was a rest day. I believe that has a positive impact on my training. Usually the amount of sleep is minimal. It also helps that floorball season is over so there's not that much rush all the time.
Morning workout. Result 74 reps.
1min on, 1min off for 20 minutes
Thrusters, 60kg
Results: 10+8+8+8+7+7+7+6+7+6 reps
A lot of thrusters for breakfast. That's it, I was done after the workout as my shoulders were killing me. This was exactly what I wanted and what I remembered from last time I completed similar workout 12th December. Then, I completed it with 50kg, today I had 60kg on the barbell. The difference between the two days was also that last time I took the bar from rack, today I picked it from floor. I felt the difference between the weights. It felt bad last time, but so it did today as well, even more.
I figured beforehand that maybe 6-7 reps would be okay but once I started working, I took 10 reps for starters, then continued with 8 reps for some rounds. From mid-workout on, it really created pressure on my shuolders and they started to go numb. Then I only tried to hang on to that 7-rep scheme till the end.
For 7 rounds I did those reps unbroken and on the last 3 rounds I had to drop the bar after 4-5 reps and then pick it up again to finish the round. I didn't utilize the entire 60 seconds any round, don't know what would have happened if I pushed it to the max each round, till the last second. Guess the burden would have built up too large to handle for 20 minutes.
I do enjoy this cruel workout. It puts strength and cardio both in to test and it takes a while to recover from the burn in forearms and shoulders. My legs weren't burning that much, they held on well.
Evening workout.
4 rounds of:
10 weighted lunges, 60-70kg bar
50 sit-ups
I went to nearby gym with Pauliina in the evening 'cause she wanted to work out. I took it light this time. For starters I did some rowing, squats and lunges with a barbell. I didn't time this workout at all. Afterwards I took 5x5 squats with a few seconds halt in the bottom position, the deepest I've ever been at. My goal was to practice that form with light weight (60kg) and find balance + depth.
Tuesday. Back squats 5-5-5-3 (+f). Metcon, stationary cycling, 30sec on, 30sec off, for 15minutes.
Alright, ready for back squats while Toni's thoughts were on deadlifts. Another workout for the day was meant to be interval rowing which I subbed because the rower was occupied by someone else. Anyway, I was able to put my legs and respiration to test today.
Strength.Back squats 5-5-5-3-f (100, 110, 120, 130, 135). I enjoyed this morning's training a lot. Squats are simply my favorites, luckily it's one of the most important strength movements. You need your legs all the time in all movements, you better have strength in there. Well, I wanted to take longer rep-sets today with heavy weights. Hundred kilos come up and down easily but it's a good starting point to shoot up. At 120kg I know it goes down and up anyday but it was awesome to see I can pop it 5 times in a row. Going for 5 reps is heavy, at least the last reps are tough. I added 10kg to the load and it was heavy man. I pushed 3 reps with pure psyche. I tried 135 - my current PR - but it didn't come up just like that. It was close though…
Back squats, 130kg
Metcon.
Stationary cycling
30sec on, 30sec off, for 15minutes
This was not a bad trade at all. I haven't used stationary bikes almost at all, maybe sometimes in the past for warming up but it turned out to be quite a leg burner. After 5 minutes my quads and hamstrings understood the point of the workout as the last 10 seconds each round were tough. I liked this one, no doubt about it. No matter if it's rowing, running or biking, interval workouts are effective.
Toni's workouts. Deadlifts and squat snatches
Deadlifts 5-5-5-5-5 (110, 115, 120, 125, 130kg)
Squat snatches 5-5-5 (technique training with empty barbell)
Deadlift, Toni, 120kg
Toni's focus was on 5-rep sets of deadlifts. This is part of a bigger plan of his. Toni has been doing sets of mostly 3 reps for a long time so through extending it with 2 reps is a remarkable change. He took 5 sets between 110 and 130kg, all fives. It was also cool to see this dude doing snatches! I don't recall him doing them almost at all. This day was more like a technique training and getting familiar with the movement. The overhead squat part of it looked natural.
Wednesday. 1k row, shoulder press 5-5-5-2. Mobility. Floorball training in the evening.
My plan was to do some fierce training in the morning. However, I felt it already in the warm-up and rowing that today my body is not gonna make any magic today. I did some training and finally ended up screening Toni's workouts and encouraging him.
Ring push-ups
Strength. Shoulder press 5-5-5-2 (50, 50, 50, 55kg). On the third set of 50kg press my left elbow got sore. On the fourth one (55kg) I felt my juice was gone and the pain increased, only two reps came up. I had high hopes for today so this was definitely a disappointment for me. I still pushed forward with push press for 55kg and 60kg, 3 reps for both of them. Then I called it off. My strength training was over. I only did some mobility for the next half an hour. After one hour it got better, and now in the evening it's all good, luckily =) We had team practice in the evening for 2 hours, I took some burpees, sit-ups, squats, lunges and back extensions before the training.
20 walking lunges, 20kg bar in front rack position, alternating legs
15 ring push-ups
10 pull-ups
First round of Toni's metcon
He started pull-ups as assisted versions with a rubber band but after 7-8 reps he tossed it away and did the remaining ones without it. That's awesome Toni, 40 pull-ups, that's a lot, probably more than you've ever done! Ring push-ups went unbroken in the first round, and 3x5 in the remaining rounds. Walking lunges seemed to be the easiest of these three moves.
Tuesday. Front squat 3-3-3-3-2 (max PR 112.5kg). Metcon 5 rounds of: 20 lunges with 40kg in the front rack position, 10 pull-ups, 5 hspu and 10 k2e. Time 15.17.
Handstand push-up
Strength. Front squat 3-3-3-3-2 (100, 105, 107.5, 110, PR 112.5kg). Nice! I got these going well from the very beginning. I've been able to add kilos to my max sets steadily and continuously. It's very heavy, no doubt but still it comes up and I don't compromise the form. I suppose my core is in good shape which enables these weights. I took 5 sets of 3 reps, only the last rep didn't come up. My belly was full as I got the second lift up on the last round so the last attempt was really no attempt. Today was a success with front squats, 14 reps over 100kg, that's something to be proud of :)
Personal record in front squat, 112.5kg
Metcon. Tough one, 5 rounds of weihgted lunges, pull-ups, hspu, k2e, time 15.17.
5 rounds of
20 lunges with a 40kg bar in the front rack position
10 pull-ups
5 handstand push-ups
10 knees-to-elbows
Huh, this was a tough one! It got to my heart, it got to my shoulders and it got to my hamstrings and quads. I intentionally made it longer than normally because I wanted to put my heart to test as well and also see what happens with those moves as I add more reps to a workout. First of all, the lunges. I held the barbell in the same way as if I did front squats. I put 40kg on the bar and did 20 lunges per round, with alternating legs, i.e. 10 per leg. For the first three rounds I went unbroken, for the last two rounds I did 14+6 reps. It really burnt my legs in the end and also caught my respiration.
My pull-ups have taken a step further. All rounds unbroken, boom baby! Haha, spectacular feeling as I got some kipping style to ease the movement. After pull-ups the next move was handstand push-ups, five of them each round. Today I finally made the decision to skip the foam roll and hit my head to the floor, very smart decision! This makes the movement many times harder compared to lowering head to a foam roll or something alike. For the first two rounds I went unbroken, third and fourth round 3+2 and the last round 2+2+1. It was tough, my shoulders were in pure pain, just the way I like it =) I should learn how to kip the handstand push-ups, it would make it so much easier, especially when fatigue come into play. After HSPUs the knees-to-elbows were easy, ten reps isn't that bad. All rounds unbroken, easiest movement in the workout.
My first round was around two and a half minutes, second round little less than three minutes and the last three rounds were just over three minutes on average.
Toni handstanding
Toni's workouts. Today Toni put all his focus on strength training, deadlift and bench press.
Sunday. Back squat 6x5 (max 115kg), weighted lunges 3x5 (60kg). Metcon 15min amrap of burpees, farmer's walk and wall climbs.
Third day at the gym here in Sweden. Together with my girlfriend we've done some pretty good workouts here as the possibilities are a bit different. Especially I'm gonna miss the skierg machine, which I have used on a daily basis here. I can't imagine a better combination of warm-up and upper body conditioning than rowing and skierg after each other. Also the variety of kettlebells here is vast and the possibility to do wall ball shots are awesome. I just have to keep on adding various elements to keep the workouts mixed and versatile. Today my strength training concentrated in my legs: back squats, 6 sets of 5 reps after which I took weighted lunges. There was also a 15min amrap of burpees, farmer's walk and wall climbs. At the end I took the row / skierg combo.
Strength. Back squat 6x5 (80+90+100+105+110+115). Weighted lunges, alternating legs 3x5 (60kg). My hamstrings felt very good from the very beginning and there were no stiffness in my joints. A good sign and positive feeling to start pushing forward. After warm-up I quite rapidly got up to 80kg and started putting some serious weights on the bar. I was wondering how light the weights actually felt, 100kg was far easier than normally. So I added 5 kilos after each set of 5 reps. My PR is 115kg, dating back to September 18th. Today I took that bar up four times. Naturally I could've put more weights on and get maybe 1-2 reps. However, would it have been worth it? I don't think so. I was pleased that I took more reps with this shared PR than go for one rep with higher kilos. Create a good base and build up the base by doing sets of 3 or 5 reps each time. Then you can finally up the kilos with those higher sets. That's what I think. There may be many truth to this one. After back squats I took 3 sets of 5 reps with both legs, alternating them after each rep. All in all, my back squats were rolling today! :)
Metcon. 15min amrap of three movements. Result 6 total rounds, 10 burpees and 30m farmer's walk.
10 burpees
120m farmer's walk (2x20kg kettlebell)
3 wall climbs
I rested for about 10 minutes, gave Pauliina some encouragement with her moves and then took my first metcon. This workout consisted of three different moves for 15min amrap. First 10 burpees, then 120m farmer's walk with 2 x 20kg kettlebells and finally 3 wall climbs. I managed to go for 6 rounds + 10 burpees and 30m walk with the KBs. Total of 70 burpees, 750m farmer's walk and 18 wall climbs. The nature of the workout pleased me. My shoulder and hands started to burn after 4 rounds. Burpees were pretty much my "rest time", they didn't feel bad at all compared to the other moves. Farmer's walk wasn't that bad for a couple of rounds but after ten minutes that distance was quite long in my head. My grip started to come loose and I had to do some mental work to be able to push through. Wall climbs were as energy consuming as they were when I did hero wod Adrian one week ago. That is an awesome movement! Really gets to the shoulders an triceps big time. Also breathing got heavy after four rounds. I liked this one!
Metcon. Final workout included rowing and skierg. Time about 9.00.
500m row
500m skierg
500m row
500m skierg
At the end I still wanted to go for my favorite upper body conditioning machines, rowing and skierg. I did two rounds of 500m rowing and 500m skierg. My transitions were quite slow but the times spent on the machines stayed quite good. Rowing was around 1.40-1.45 / 500m and skierg was around 2.00 / 500m both times.
Pauliina's day consisted of running, legs and back muscles. There were extensive stretching and mobility workouts done at the end of the day. Hopefully our joints are now flexible again.
Tuesday. 100 DUs. Back squat 3x5 (100kg), weighted lunges 3x5 with alternating legs (60kg), overhead squats 3x8 (20kg). Wod consisting of back squats and ring dips, time 5.51. Weighted ring dips 3x5 (max 15kg), weighted pull-ups3x5 (max 15kg). 100 DUs to cool down.
Overhead squats
Quite a day! Woke up at six o’clock in the morning and headed to the gym with Toni and another fresh crossfitter, Joni. My agenda was to go for back squats, not to the max anyway. In addition I decided to take weighted lunges and learn some technique for overhead squats. After that I took a metcon consisting of back squats and ring dips. Finally I felt there was still some juice left so I put on the belt and started loading some weights on it, and began doing ring dips and pull-ups. For starters and cooling down I took 100 reps of double unders in each end of the training session.
Strength. Back squats 3x5 (100+100+100kg). Weighted lunges 5x5 with alternating legs (60+60+60kg). Then I also took overhead squats 3x8 (20+20+20kg).
I wanted to give pressure for my legs by concentrating on quantity this time. I piled it up to 100kg for back squats and took 3 sets of 5 reps. If this was a regular heavy squatting day, I would’ve put more plates on the bar. Today’s agenda was a bit different. I don’t want to get stuck on the same routines so I’m trying to find various types of exercises, which still increase my strength level. I felt confident doing those back squats today. After traditional squatting, I took lunges with a barbell in my back. I took five reps with each leg, alternating after each step. Every set included 5 lunges with both legs. I had 60kg in the bar. Not too heavy, could’ve carried more weights though.
This was a good and different type of leg workout. At the end, I wanted to have a look how my overhead squats are at the moment. I can tell you there is remarkable difference in my overhead squats compared to summer time. Then, it was just impossible to squat by holding a bar overhead and squat simultaneously. Of course I was able to hold the bar overhead but when I tried to go down, my upper body naturally leaned forward and caused the bar to drop in front of me. After doing mobility movements inspired by Kelly Starlett, my mobility has improved greatly and nowadays I can do those squats. I’m not sure my technique is perfect but it’s manageable. Better start doing them consistently. Then, in the future you will witness me doing overhead squats with proper weights as well as snatches.
Metcon. Back squats and ring dips. Time 5.51.
4 rounds of:
20 back squats (50kg)
10 ring dips
Metcon. My metcon part was also about squats. Four rounds of back squats, 20 reps with 50kg, and 10 ring dips. Total of 80 squats and 40 ring dips. All sets went unbroken. My strategy was to do sets unbroken so I didn’t rush between transitions because that might have forced to have a break in between. My legs were burning in the second round of the workout. On the third and fourth rounds I stopped for maybe two seconds to give a short break for my hamstrings. I kept the bar all the time at my back, just wanted to take a short breath during the squats, then continued to the end. Ring dips went also unbroken each time.
Strength for dips and pull-ups. Ring dips 3x5 (10+10+15kg) and pull-ups 3x5 (10+10+15kg). I was still hungry for training so decided to get the belt and and put some weights hanging from it and do some ring dips and pull-ups. I mixed these two movements. First 5 ring dips with 10kg, then 5 pull-ups with same kilos. A break, another round, a break, increased it to 15kg and repeated the same protocol. I just love those rings, nothing else to say about them, they are awesome! The pull-ups were more difficult for me than ring dips. Next time I might add more kilos to ring dips, I suppose 20kg will come up in a set of 5 reps. However, I think I managed to do 3 or 4 pull-ups with 15kg in the last set. I really don’t consider my pull-ups to be my strength. My max amount of pull-ups is 20reps currently, I see a definite development target there.
Toni’s workouts. Strength for front squats (max 3 x 70kg) and back squats (max 2 x 100kg). Metcon was
3 rounds of:
15 burpees
30 sit-ups
20 squats
20 kettlebell (16kg)
Toni going for 100kg back squat
Toni will comment his metcon himself, we were doing our metcons simultaneously so it’s hard to say how he did. At least he had hard times after the workout so I bet this was a rough one.
