The weather is freaking summery in here! And I love it. We were gonna go to the gym in the morning but instead it turned out to be a one and a half hour walk in the parks, forest and almost downtown Helsinki. Awesome quality time with my baby. On our way back we took a shortcut through Eltsu and "accidentally" stopped there to do some bodyweight training. There were a lot of people so we got inspired to do cartwheels and handstand. In the evening I went to the Box and worked on my pull-ups in various ways. It's a bummer I have to be cautious of my hip flexors. It would be great to lift heavy and do proper metcons already!
Playing around.
Cartwheels
Handstand
For some reason I have thought for the last couple of months that it would be awesome to master a simple movement like cartwheel. But those have always looked pathetic and there hasn't been a gymnastics coach training with me so it's not something I would start practicing on my own. Now that I had Pauliina with me in a place like this it felt right to take couple of attempts. We actually played here quite a long time as we both felt like we progressed a bit. This is something gals seem to be better at, I guess they just know how to control their body better =)
After playing around with cartwheels I also took some handstand hold for fun. There were a lot of people in Eltsu improving their fitness. And mother's day was seen in the picture too. Lots of families were walking outdoors in a beautiful and sunny Finland.
Pull-ups.
Weighted pull-ups
3x10, 10, 150, 17.5, 20, 22.5, 20kg
5x17.5, 15kg
6x10kg
I got a chance to have a training session with Jasper, at least for a while. Our schedules didn't quite match but it was great to have couple of fist pumps and hit a workout. He had to go and I stayed to work on my pull-ups in different styles. Starting with pull-ups with some extra weight. Mostly triples, built up to a heavy set which turned out to be 22.5kg. Then I dropped down with more reps. Pull-ups are great but to be honest doing weighted versions of them for strength is kind of boring. Feels like a meathead.
Pull-up complex.
Every minute on the minute for 9 minutes
1-3min: 4 bar muscle-ups
4-6min: 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
7-9min: 10 pull-ups
This was much more fun! And I got a little heartbeat up at the same time. I could do muscle-ups all day every day! I'm so very happy those are rocking pretty well nowadays. Both bar and ring mu's. Mu's are also something I can do without having to stress how hip flexors are doing. Of course hip work is in the play but this movement is not the one putting too much pressure in there.
First 3 minutes were all about muscle-ups, next 3 minutes were c2b pull-ups and last 3 minutes were normal pull-ups. I increased the number of reps after each movement because it got easier towards the end. My lats were on fire on the regular pull-ups. I mean they hurt like hell. I had to go foam roll my lats and stretch them out for quite a bit after the workout. This made good to my body!
Bench.
Bench press 3x10 (60, 70, 75kg)
This is rare. What I really wanted to do was a bad ass metcon but I just couldn't figure out what I would do without using my legs that much so instead, it turned out to be a bench session in the end. Three sets of 10 reps, climbing. Last set was 75kg.
Bench sets
Then I took couple of heavier singles but my upper body was smashed at this point already. Hopefully tomorrow morning I wake up with fully healed legs so I can start doing some real work!
Tuesday. Skills, ring mu's. Weighted pull-ups 8x3. Metcon, 5min amrap of: burpee box jumps and pull-ups. Metcon, 5min amrap of: hspu's and kb swings. Metcon, 5min amrap of: t2b's and db presses.
Yeah, kind of a different day. Took ring muscle-ups in the beginning after a long break. Also pull-ups with added weight is something that hasn't taken place in eternity. Metcon consisted of 3 quick workouts, mostly bodyweight, mixed with some dumbbells. This was great stuff!
Really needed these to save my palms today
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups, 1-1-1-1-1
Good to have these in my system. And it was solid effort all the way. Each rep were assumably similar. I did mental work prior to each rep to avoid misses because this is as much physical as it is psychological movement for me. This was probably the second time in the past months I've done ring mu's at all. I remember I intentionally skipped this movement totally for a while when I had those wrist issues. Now this needs to make a comeback.
Ring mu's but not from today's session
Weighted pull-ups.
8x3 (10, 15, 20, 20, 20, 15, 15, 15kg)
Don't know where this came from but for some reason I had the urge to go after these. Not sure did I get anything out of these but at least the work was being done. Originally I was looking to do 7 sets with normal pull-up grip, that is pronated grip. After 7 sets I though trying one more set with supinated grip. That felt much lighter.
The first 2 sets were the at 10-15kg and I felt there was room to add up so the next couple of sets were at 20kg. The 5th set felt a bit too tight and it felt like next set wouldn't succeed as a triple so I dropped it to 15kg and finished the rest of the sets, maybe a bit too light though on those. Maybe it could've been 17.5kg or something like that.
Metcon. Result, 73 reps (13 burpees on the round of 15's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Burpee box jump
Pull-ups
Toni just completed this kind of stuff maybe yesterday. He got 2x5min amraps, pretty much identical, the only difference was he had burpees over the box whereas I had burpee box jumps. Difference? Mine had to be facing the box all the time whereas in burpees over the box you may face the box however you want to. I wanted to work on that explosiveness at the same time when coming up from the burpee. Need to use hips and jump close to the box so that I could bounce on top of the box with one constant movement. Thanks to Toni for the inspiration on the metcons.
It was good to have this kind of quick and fast-paced action. The nature of these metcons is different compared to a 20min amrap or a long benchmark workout. Anyway, I went unbroken on both movements except the 12 pull-ups that I cut to 7-5. Burpee box jumps really know how to get heart rate up. This was a good one.
Metcon. Result, 68 reps (8 hspu on the round of 15's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Handstand push-ups
Dumbbell swings (30kg)
Same logic with the reps. Start with a triple with both movements, add 3 more reps each round to both movements. Complete as many reps as possible in the 5min time frame. I got hspu's unbroken on the first 2 rounds. It was no surprise handstand push-ups was the more challenging element of these two. On the round of 9's I cut it to 6-3. And round of 12's it was 4-4-2-2, I just tried to keep the recovery as short as possible, still keeping in mind that I can't rush it so save shoulders a little bit. Once they go out of order, they won't come back in seconds.
"Kettlebell" swings were tougher with a dumbbell. No matter the 2kg difference to 2-pood bell. I'd rather swing the traditional bell because of the grip. It was kind of awkward to fit both hands on the dumbbell as there's not that much space. Well, no biggie, I got those unbroken anyway. Swings for 3-12 reps is nothing so it was only inevitable to make 'em unbroken.
Great workout, and my shoulders were definitely smashed after 5 minutes. I enjoy this kind of 3-3, 6-6… system, especially for workouts that last something between 5 and 7 minutes. Works perfectly, this is what we talked with Toni too.
Fast forward to event 7
Metcon. Result, 101 reps (11 t2b's on the round of 18's)
3-3-, 6-6, 9-9… of:
Toes-to-bar's
Dumbbell presses (2x15kg db's)
This was extra stuff. I had planned to hit only 2 wods but Pauliina talked me over for a third one. She often hits 4 x 7min amraps, that is some serious shit. What hit me the most on this workout was grip weakness. Had no idea how heavy dumbbells would make perfection on this workout but afterwards thought this weight was great. I got them unbroken which is pretty much the idea for all movements in this kind of short workout. Db presses were not light so I'd figure it was exactly what I was able to move.
And here's the Final too!
Toes-to-bar's were easy for first 3 rounds (3's, 6's, and 9's). From then on I cut it, the round of 12's were 8-4, and the round of 15's were 6-5-4. On the last round I think it was 5-5-1 before the buzzer finally rang. My grip was losing me at some point. There was some tingling in forearms after db presses and that transferred to hanging at the pull-up bar. Great combo of movements, got to say!
All 3 metcons had their moment, and each were good quick efforts and I was happy on being able to move most of the time. That is exactly the reason in a workout like this. That is always the objective for me but the pace needs to be different compared to a short and long workouts.
Good training day, I especially liked the metcon in the end. The only thing I wasn't able to complete from the original plan were front squats. Not enough time for that. The session started with some clean & jerk work, then ad hoc weighted pull-ups as I was talked over to test my 1RM on the fly right after the first part of the session. In the end the time was running and I had time to squeeze in a workout that wouldn't take too much time. My notes stood 7 push jerk, 14 pull-ups and 21 box, that would have been a killer workout. The "thing" of this training day was Jouni visiting PR town with 160kg deadlift! This was second time he was pulling stuff from ground in his life, what a stud!!! He'll be lifting 200 in no time as he continues to crossfit.
Mobility tools
Barbell.
Every minute on the minute x 6
2 hang squat clean + 2 push jerk
Across, i.e. all sets at 80kg
My plan was to hit it in emom-style. However, I didn't stress about the time as we did our barbell work together with Jouni. So it was natural that it wasn't possible to do it exactly every minute. It was more like one set for every 90 seconds. Cleans were light all the way, both reps in each set. I did them from hang position. At some sets it was difficult to hold on to hook grip for the second rep.
Push jerks were much tougher. I got them all done - no doubt - but in some reps I wasn't able to lock out immediately. That means to say I didn't put enough effort on the vertical press and/or didn't squat enough on my way down. Last set of these 6 attempts was the best. I wanted to finish strong so I put a lot of focus on pressing strong while dropping down fast. It felt like the first rep especially flew up. It was a good finish to this one. Got to say the bar path was good on the jerks, directly upwards. Sometimes in push jerks - particularly on the heavier weights - the bar might escape a little too much forward. This was not the case today, got them done well.
Pull-ups.
Weighted pull-ups 1-1-1-1 (25, 30, 35, PR 40kg)
Didn't plan to do this. One friend had just finished doing his sets of weighted pull-ups and he was asking where I'm at on this movement. I told him I've never really tested them out. In the beginning when I started crossfitting about 2 years ago, there were some sets but never really tested 1 rep max. Well, it took about 30 seconds to talk me into trying what the heaviest weight would be for me. I didn't wanna sacrifice time on this one because there was a metcon ahead of me and I knew I can't spend the entire evening here. I took couple of reps of fun without resting that much in between. Probably took me all 3-4 minutes to complete these. That was a nice test, happened to reach 40kg for PR.
Metcon. Time 7.55
5 rounds of:
7 push jerk, 60kg
20 box jump, 61cm
Something like "2007" was in my mind for today. Not the original version but it somehow got modified to this piece. It's about push jerks and pull-ups. This time it turned out to be a combination of push jerks and box jumps. Simple and it was such a beauty. This was crossfit. Even though shoulder-to-overhead is upper body movement I'm telling you my legs were burning. Combine that with box jumps and they were gone.
I got both movements done unbroken each round. There was some leg-shaking in between stations, and it took about 1:36 on average per round as I calculate it for all 5 rounds. The number of box jumps were more intimidating this time as both movements put pressure on lower body. And breathing was sky-rocketing too, no surprise there.
Thursday. Weighted pull-ups for fun. Metcon, 8rds of: 10 burpees, 25 du. Time 8.49.
My only thought for the training day was to get some burpees in my system. I was thinking of completing 150 burpees in 50-40-30-20-10 with some rest in between sets. That was the first thought. Juuso actually did that one. Here's a link to my performance doe time ago. Then I started thinking about wanting to have double unders in the game too. I remembered having done a couplet of the two movements but didn't quite recall the specifics. My metcon was almost similar as to the one I had done last summer, a mainsite wod.
Pull-ups.
5 x strict chest-to-bar pull-ups
5 x 10kg pull-ups
5 x 15kg pull-ups
5 x strict pull-ups
However, before I took on the metcon, I saw a friend of mine was doing some weighted pull-ups. Haven't done them in ages so I asked to step in just to remind my body how it feels like. Nothing serious, just couple of reps for fun. Might hit more reps in the future.
My warm-up routine nowadays include strict chest-to-bars almost on a daily basis. Only few reps but still I want to get my system used to the movement as strict version. Those pull-ups were light in nature. Especially 10kg set. I've done mostly kipping pull-ups and I've ignored strict reps almost entirely. Haven't found a way to include strict pull-ups in my training. I don't want to have strict reps in metcons where I wanna keep my body moving as efficient as possible. But strict rep sets would definitely be useful in the beginning of training sessions.
This Virtuosity stuff is awesome. Did this without the paralletes about two weeks ago. Used plates instead of parallettes. It works
It's a pity I didn't remember the time domain on the workout. This was originally crossfit.com workout 27.6.2013. It was 12min amrap of the couplet, same rep-scheme as I had today. The combination of burpees and double unders is sick in the long run. I mean breathing is pretty much as heavy as it gets. And shoulders start to smoke after couple of rounds.
I was able to knock the double unders almost unbroken. There was one miss on either 2nd or 3rd round. Other than that it was perfect. And felt good. Burpees unbroken too, and with a consistent speed. I looked at the round times, they stayed quite even. First 1-2 rounds might have been faster but then it was quite identical between rounds. The thing where might be something to improve is the transition time. Classic.
It's difficult to drop the jump rope and have chest to deck 1-2sec after that. It feels like I need to have those 5 seconds before dropping to the floor. Same after the burpees. It takes some time to get up, grab the jump rope and start jumping. Especially as I want to get those du-sets unbroken. Anyway, the workout is very good, and exactly what I wanted. Yesterday there wasn't a metcon at all so I was longing for one.
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!
Saturday. Skills, C2B pull-ups and ring pull-ups. Strength, weighted pull-ups and dips. Metcon, for completion, 8 rounds of: 30 DU + 10 T2B.
Today I was concentrating in pull-up skills and strength in the same session. This day was more skills oriented, trying to work on the technique and efficiency. On the other hand, I had my weighted vest on and was doing some sets of pull-ups and dips with weights. In the late afternoon we headed to the woods with Pauliina for over one hour to wander around.
Weighted reps.
Pull-ups, 5x9kg, 5x9kg, 4x14kg, 10x9kg, 11x9kg
Dips, 5x9kg, 5x9kg, 5x9kg, 5x24kg, 5x29kg, 5x29kg
Just went by feeling with the weights. My vest weighs 9kg. Must be beneficial to go for these two movements with weights. Haven't given much thought on the rep scheme when doing these movements. Bodyweight pull-ups seem to be something you could call a strength for me but having weights hanging from my waist was another thing.
Having my weighted vest on me, it seemed easy to do the pull-ups because I was able to use small kipping movement. Once I had plates hanging from me, it's purely strict pull-ups and there I kind of didn't have the technique right. At least it felt more difficult to get the body moving like I'd want. Better practice on those strict bodyweight movements as well, not always kipping.
Metcon. For completion
8 rounds of:
30 double unders
10 toes-to-bar
Originally I was looking forward to doing 15min amrap of 5 handstand push-ups, 30 double unders and 10 t2b but my neck was a little sore from some clean & jerks earlier this week. So I dropped the hspu's and focused on these 2 movements. I was trying to keep my torso in a more upright position on the doubles and then complete the t2b's as efficiently as possible. In the later rounds of the t2b's I was able to use the swing in a less consuming way.
Couple of hours later we headed to the nearby woods with Pauliina to pick up some berries and play around.
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
My crossfit was non-existing today because this was a Game Day. We won the last game of the regular season 6-4 so I guess we'll continue the season in the playoffs.
Toni's workouts.
5x5 hspu, scaled to foam roll
5x5 weighted dips, 15kg
5x1 weighted pull-ups, 10kg
1/2 Cindy, 10 rounds in 10 minutes
Back squats, 3x100, 3x110, 1x120, failed attempt of 130kg, 1x130kg (PR)
I wonder when comes the day I can perform muscle-ups
Monday. Weighted pull-ups 3x10, floor press 3x6, hip thrusters 4x10.
Yesterday's workout - hero workout Coe - really has its after aftershock on my body today. The combination of thrusters and ring dips have caused my triceps to be extremely sore right now and back squats and thrusters made the same feeling on my legs. Every time I love this feeling as much even though it hurts like hell =) Hopefully I can do my olympic lifting training tomorrow as planned.
I've done much more benchmark / hero / challenge workouts lately compared to history. The reason for that is my goal to achieve better muscular stamina and I genuinely believe this is the correct road. These type of workouts are cruel and effective. Today's agenda after yesterday's hard work was a notch easier. Weighted pull-ups, then first touch to floor press and couple of sets of hip thrusters. Toni did a 20min amrap of modified hero wod Coe.
Hip thrusters @ 60kg
Weighted pull-ups. 3x10 (9kg vest). I've done weighted pull-ups and dips earlier but today was the first time I did pull-ups with my vest, which weights 9kg. I took 3 sets, 10 reps each time. Could've also put more effort on training chest-to-bar pull-ups (C2B) but this was my choice today.
Weighted pull-ups @ 9kg
Floor press. 3x6 (40, 60, 60kg), just trying to get familiar with the movement. After pull-ups I realized my triceps were still burning from Coe so I didn't start to load the barbell with heavy weights. My focus was to get used to this movement, never tried it before. The difference between bench press and floor press is the range of motion. Floor prevents you from lowering the bar all the way to chest so the main focus of this one is to focus on the pressing power in the middle to top position. Pretty much the same if you did deadlift from a rack, from knee level to full extension.
Floor press @ 60kg
Hip thrusters. 4x10 reps (60, 60, 60, 80kg). I remember doing hip thrusters once or twice about half a year ago. This is a good supportive movement to create explosive power in the hips. In this set I realized my heels are too far away from my rear. To place the heels closer demands also a greater push from the hips, simultaneously you get better positioning and more stable stance. I corrected my position after this first set. I was able to move that last set of 80kg as easy as the 60kg ones. I believe this is a good movement to take on once in a while.
Hip thrusters @ 60kg
Toni's workouts. Modified Coe, result 6 rounds + 10 thrusters.
20 min amrap
10 thrusters, 42.5kg
10 dips
Instead of going for 10 full rounds Toni subbed this to 20min amrap, which may have been a smart decision. Another adjustment was to replace ring dips with regular dips. Toni, you can give your own comments on this one, did you like it? Do your hands and legs scream for pain? 6 1/2 rounds of pure pain =)
Today I concentrated on two main areas: pull-ups and push-ups, with a little weight on me. Toni skipped his rest day and joined me at the gym to do some technique training and weighted push-ups.
Pull-ups. 5-5-5-4-4 (10, 12.5, 15, 12.5, 10kg). Last time I did weighted pull-ups was back in autumn, in September and October. For the last month or so, the number of pull-ups I've done, are few. I've had some issues with my elbow(s) so I've tried to minimize their number. I felt good today and I'm having a guilty conscience of not doing them. That's why I needed to go for them today. My goal was to do 5x5, on the last two sets I managed only 4 reps. I did this workout pyramid style, starting and ending in 10kg, reaching 15kg in between.
Push-ups. 3x10 (10, 15, 20kg). Took some sets without any additional weights to start up. Toni suggested to add some bets on this one so we piled some plates on our backs and did some push-ups. I took 3 sets with 10, 15 and finally 20kg. It was an awkward but still nice movement. The best feature I got from this training was the strong reminder of how important it is to do just simple push-ups. You know, pure old school push-ups. I'd better put this on my schedule on a regular basis.
Floorball in the evening.
Toni's workout. He took it light as well. Some technique with snatches and heavy push-ups to the end. I guess he took sets of 5-10 reps with weights between 10-20kg.
Now he did it, Visa, 200kg deadlift. Beastmode: On
Monday. 10-8-6-4-2, deadlift and bench press, 80% of RM. Weighted dips 4x5 (max 25kg), weighted pull-ups 4x3 (max 15kg). Workout 4 rounds of 10 reps: ab wheel and knees to elbows for quality.
Deadlift & bench press. 10-8-6-4-2. Start from deadlift, continue to bench press, sets going down from ten reps to two reps with two rep interval. Total of 30 reps each. Weights 80% of RM.
10-8-6-4-2
120kg deadlift
60kg bench press
I didn't take exact time, the nature of the workout was to do it with quality, not for time. Anyway, I tried to do it without any extra breaks. It took a total of about 4-5 minutes. All sets unbroken. My maxes for these movements are 150kg for deadlift and 75kg for bench press so I ended up in 120kg for deadlift and 60kg for bench press. First 10 deadlifts, then 10 bench presses, 8 deadlift, 8 bench presses...
I've seen this kind of workouts from Rob Orlando, from where I got the inspiration to mix two strength moves together. This was definitely worth the try and it will be applied in the future as well, maybe next time with different moves. Let's say clean and squat for example. My bench presses have been few so it was important to implement that into my workouts as well. It's 100% sure I'm going to take more presses in the future. Doing all sets unbroken pleased me a lot. I took some breath between sets so that I could push it through unbroken. The last reps were tough so I really believe this workout worked for its purpose!
Dips & pull-ups. Weighted dips 4x5 (10+15+20+25kg), weighted pull-ups 4x3 (5+10+15+15kg). Today my dips and pull-ups were not that easy. I managed to go up to 25kg with dips and 15kg with pull-ups. This time I didn't mix these two but went for dips first for all 4 sets and then moved on to pull-ups. I had thought going for these two only tomorrow but I was so eager that I decided to do them today. That gives some space for tomorrow's training.
Core. The last set of action concentrated on improving my core.
4 rounds of
10 ab wheel
10 knees to elbows
I took four rounds of 10 ab wheel rolls and 10 reps of K2Es. All concentrating in mainly abdominals, but also shoulders got their piece. I didn't time this workout but went on constantly without breaks as well. All sets unbroken, not too bad.
Toni reportedly had visited the gym in the morning for clean training. He might have shared his previous personal record today :) Tell us more! My training schedule was on my phone which went broken during the weekend so in the evening I'll do some planning for the rest of the month and try to memorize what was planned already. Today I also saw the guy at the gym who is responsible for the renovation and it seems the rings are about to be installed to the ceiling so I can progress to learn muscle ups and also the 60cm Rogue box is on its way, c'mon!
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.
Sunday. Today I'm going to pay attention to body recovery. No strength training nor workouts, mainly just doing some mobility work for my upper body and then a lot of stretching for the entire body to get full utilization of the rest day. I've done my share for this week in training, here's a summary of the training workouts from the past week. Three floorball sessions, strength training on four different days to cover all main muscles and some metcons to increase metabolic conditioning and endurance. I feel this week was a good one and there were some rather new movements such as bench press and weighted pull-ups and dips. Toni was training with me on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Today he was doing cleans and push press for strength, added with some Tabata workouts.
Monday. Floorball training and a metcon. Tuesday. Back squat and a metcon in the morning, rowing and a metcon in the evening. Wednesday. Deadlift (PR) in the morning, floorball in the evening. Thursday. Game day, floorball, season opener. Friday. Push press (PR), shoulder press (PR) and bench press (PR) in the morning, plus a metcon. Saturday. Row 2k, weighted pull-ups and weighted dips. Sunday. Mobility, stretching, relaxing.
I finalized my programming for October just yesterday. The main idea is to include both back and front squats once a week. I believe once you're legs are strong, it eases a lot of other movements as well. I will also include one deadlift training on most of the weeks. For my upper body strength I will have clean, push press, shoulder press and thruster training once or twice a week. I will rotate the strength trainings with a proper interval so that there wouldn't be too much burden for one part of the body in too short time. Some additional supportive strength trainings may be included as well.
Another main ingredient is to include hero wods on a regular basis to really test my limits. Naturally on those days I will concentrate purely on that workout because they are longer workouts in their nature. For metabolic conditioning I want to have rowing workouts and metcons included alongside strength trainings. However, don't stress, there will be rest days as well =) Toni will tag along with the workouts so I will be posting his development as well. He has done tremendous work after the summer holidays when he began crossfitting. He is hitting PR results consistently, his endurance has improved and he has enacted new movements. And above all, he is giving his everything in all the workouts, he really has that crossfit attitude never to surrender during a workout.
Here is a Team USA training. Team Europe includes Mikko Aronpää from Finland. These two teams are going to compete against each other on October 13th in London. Take a look how these US beasts practice for the upcoming!
This was supposed to be a rest day as I was called on duty at work. Right after work I headed to watch a floorball game of the national league because of some old friends are playing there. However, my boss came to work to back me up so I was able to hit the gym =) Awesome deal! Programme was rowing for 2k and weighted pull-ups and weighted dips.
Row 2k. What I had in mind when going to the gym was to do some weighted pull-ups. I took off by rowing. Usually I row 500m for about 1.45min as to get my heart beat up. This time I decided to go for 1.000m when I was ready with the 500 meters. At the same time I turned the digital screen facing the ceiling 'cause I didn't want to stare the numbers. When I thought I might be close to 1k I stopped and looked at the distance. It stood 1.250m, it gave me enormous boost and instantly I was determined to go for 2.000m for time. Still, I kept the meter facing upwards. Finally my time was 7.12. Previous record was 7.17. This time I held two short pauses as I was pondering what to do with the screen. I'm very happy I went all the way and the time got better compared to last test.
Strength. Weighted pull-ups 3x3 (15+15+15kg), weighted dips 5x5 (15+15+20+20+25kg). I've only taken these weighted moves once or twice before, I really don't know why I have avoided them because they are pretty awesome. My style was to take 3 reps for pull-ups, then 5 reps for dips. First two rounds I stayed with 15kg, then on the third round I lifted the weight for dips because it felt too light. I took three rounds for pull-ups and five rounds for dips.
Pull-ups were heavy for me, I managed to do two reps well but the last two rounds I went 2+1 reps for pull-ups, couldn't go three straight even though I tried. It was more like 2.5 reps, then I had to drop and do the third after a couple of seconds rest. Only the first round was three straight. I'm still happy to the result. I took some lighter weights first and they went smooth. Anyway, the dips moved well in my opinion and I was disciplined with the full movement in both pull-ups and dips. I'm sure I could have dipped more kilos, this time the record was 25kg for 5 reps.
This was a good and fast exercise, my triceps are burning right now and I can really feel the training from yesterday's presses and today's moves. In addition, the game I went to watch was very entertaining so this Saturday was something to remember afterwards =)
Friday. Fight Gone Bad. 3 rounds, 1 min rest between rounds. 10 min rest, 5x5 weighted pull-ups.
First round
Push press 35
Box jumps 40
Wall ball 30
Row 17
Sumo deadlift high pull 20
Total 142
Second round
Push press 30
Box jumps 30
Wall ball 17
Row 13
Sumo deadlift high pull 15
Total 105
Third round
Push press 20
Box jumps 30
Wall ball 20
Row 16
Sumo deadlift high pull 13
Total 99
Total of 346 points. This was the first time I hit this wod. It was exhausting, no surprise there. My shoulders were on fire. Man they were feeling tired As you can see from the three different rounds, the total points were going down through the rounds. One minute seems like an eternity when you do the exercise but when you have your one minute off, it feels like ten seconds. Rowing was somehow the station that was not so highly influenced by fatigue even though I thought it would be. Shoulders were burning after one round which affected the results in the following two rounds.
After 10 min rest I engaged the strength training with weighted pull-ups, 5 x 5. Starting from 5kg, going up 10kg, 12.5kg, 15kg, 10kg. Felt good, also first time putting extra weight in pull-ups. I can see the development since starting doing pull-ups in spring time. That time I could make about 7-8 reps and that was pretty much it. Rep after rep muscles have gained enough strength to enable these exercises.
In the end I practiced double unders, I'm now getting to understand how to make those. I can do a DU - normal jump - DU - normal etc. I did also some toes-to-bars, 3 x 10. Stretching in the evening
