Wednesday 23.12: Bench, Dips, Longer metcon

Wednesday. Bench press 6x5 @ 80kg. Weighted ring dips 7x3 @ 20kg. Metcon, 4rds of: 1.000m row, 20 push-ups, 20 one-handed oh kb lunges (16kg). Time, 25.50.

Today was a very early training session in the morning. I was surprised how fresh I felt at that time. Okay, body feels a bit hammered but I wasn't tired at all and that was a great signal of having enough time to recover and sleep on holidays. Upper body strength to start with, and then a notch longer workout with easier heart rate.

Strength.

• Bench press 6x5 @ 80kg

The effect of all the presses and jerks yesterday were obvious today. I felt it in my shoulders for sure. That's why bench presses were heavier than they usually are. I stayed at relatively light weight in all sets, across 80kg in all sets. No prob in these sets though.

Gymnastics.

• Weighted dips 7x3 @ 20kg
• Last set as many reps as possible. Result, 7 reps

This has been non-existing for a long time. I figured it suits well with the bench. There was a set of bodyweight dips for a number of reps, then triples at 10kg and 15kg before doing the first working set. Ended up doing 7 sets at this fixed load.

One set of dips

On the last rep I allowed myself to enjoy the moment and do as many reps as possible to finish the dips. My shoulders were shot at this point but still I was able to do 7 reps. Felt good about it.

Metcon. Time, 25.50

• 4 rounds of:
• 1.000m row
• 20 push-ups
• 10 right hand kettlebell overhead lunges, 16kg
• 10 left hand kettlebell overhead lunges, 16kg

This workout's purpose was to go steadily with a bit lower heart rate. Rowing was at 1:55 throughout the wod. Push-ups were unbroken. Kettlebell lunges with holding the single kb overhead is something new I wanted to try out. One training pal threw in the idea of overhead lunges so I modified it to this version.

Short recap of metcon

Had no idea what weight might work for its purpose. I grabbed the first kettlebell and started walking with it. It was 16kg all the way. I also tried 2x16kg but that felt a bit difficult considering my shoulder mobility. Got to try them out later on too. I guess those might make a positive impact.

In the end I realized the weight of the kettlebell was too light. These didn't burn as much I had anticipated. Shoulders were strong in this one. Nice little metcon to finish the session.

Thursday 18.9: Bar muscle-ups, Bench, Dips

Thursday. Skills, bar muscle-ups (25 reps). Strength, close grip bench (max 87.5kg). Ring dips.

I had been waiting for this day for several days. It was like Christmas in September. What would be that much fun. To drive to Pirkkola and practice on bar muscle-ups! How little can make a crossfitter happy about =) I took a trip there right after work, did a quick skills workout, then went home to pick up my baby, and headed to the gym for another quick session.

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups, 25 reps (PR 10, 5, 5, 5 reps)

Pirkkola is the place to be for this skill practice. It's my favorite outdoor training place. You can practically do anything you want out there. We've hit couple of HC Triplets there too with Toni. This pull-up bar is perfect for my purposes. There are plenty of room both sides of the bar and I can utilize a big kip. At the gym it would be more like a strict muscle-up if I had the skills for that.

I took a short warm-up for my shoulders, then couple of strict chest-to-bar pull-ups and toes-to-bar before jumping on the bar and started ripping it. I've done something like 5 reps at max before this day. One time I've been able to do 9 reps in a row with every rep being ugly, landing over the bar with a twist, right side first. Since Pauliina started coaching my muscle-ups I've jumped to next level and currently those mu's look like they should. The movement is evenly balanced and I'm able to use my hips better than before.

The first reps felt so good that I decided to go after a new record. PR was ahead of me. Finally got 10 reps and was happy at that point. I didn't max out totally, there might have been some room still. Took a break and repeated for 5 reps. Actually I took 3 x 5 reps with rest between sets. This totaled 25 reps which is more than I've ever done in one training day. Plus all of these - I mean every single one - were good reps today! That was more than I was ever hoping to complete. I'm super stoked on this!

PR

Strength.

• Close grip bench press, 5x60, 70kg, 3x80, 82.5, 85, 87.5kg, 5x80kg
• Ring dips 10xbw, 10x10kg, 7x15kg

Couple of hours later I found myself hanging out at the gym indoors doing bench and dips. This was a quick session because of schedule issues. We spent about half an hour at the gym with Pauliina. A lot shorter warm-up than normal was compulsory but I got ready enough for bench. It's been weeks / months since last bench session. Took 'em this time with close grip. The point being giving more pressure on arms / triceps, and thus focusing on translating the benefits to olympic lifts.

Same focus was on weighted ring dips. There's would be a point getting my arms stronger, that would definitely make my overhead strength more legit. I got inspired by Austin Malleolo, Games level athlete who talked about this just currently. Don't worry, I'm not gonna start meatheading frequently but there might be a point in that. Dips are something I have increased gradually to my training but bench is a rarity.

Recap

This training day was all about bar muscle-ups. I've been waiting eagerly to find a good place to knock a bunch of them and hoping my form has stayed good. Luckily the trend continues. And, I'd like to see this develop also technique on ring muscle-ups too! Should be able to go for multiple reps on rings too.

Wednesday 27.8: Weighted ring dips, Du's and T2b's

Wednesday. Strength, weighted ring dips 5-5-5-5-5 (max 30kg). Metcon, 100-80-60-40-20 du's, 30-25-20-15-10 tb2's. Time 11.45

Decided to work mostly on bodyweight movements this Wednesday morning. However, it seemed like a good idea to get some ring dips for strength as well. It's been ages since I did them last time and it simply felt great to knock couple of sets. The metcon of the day was something I stole from Pat Sherwood who in turn took it from the champ himself, Rich Froning Jr. It was as good as I had thought it might be.

Next level snack late at work. Classic smoothie, yammy!

Strength.

• Weighted ring dips 5-5-5-5-5 (10, 15, 20, 25, 30kg)

It was a big mystery how much weight could be put on the belt. I remember having done them with 15kg weights in the past. Had no idea I could push it this far. My last set was at 30kg. The sets were all 5's, starting from 10kg and coming up in 5kg jumps. Had I known 30kg was my max load I could have tried to do all sets at around 20kg.

This was a great exercise and probably something I should do more often. It can directly be transferred to ring skills and shoulder strength. Once I started loading the plates on the weight belt each set felt like I have to do work and concentrate well to get the reps done. Still, it always felt like there's room to add some weight so I did just that. And ended up with 5x30kg set.

Metcon. Time 11.45

• 100-80-60-40-20 double unders
• 30-25-20-15-10 toes-to-bar

When done Pat Sherwood / Rich Froning style, the reps were a little higher. Total of 450 du's and 150 t2b's, that's a lot! Got to say Pat brings up perfect workouts in his IG pace. You could pick up awesome workouts on a daily basis just by following him. I scaled this one to 300 double unders and 100 toes-to-bar. Figured there's more sense considering my fitness. It's a bit different thing when the fittest of the fittest do their workouts.

On the first du set - 100 - it was a little insecure action, had to take couple of sets and there were also some misses involved. Wasn't that happy with my performance. It actually wasn't that bad but I hoped to finish it better. On the 80's I took 4 sets of 20 reps, just wanted to release the tension in my shoulders between attempts. The round of 60's went in 30-15-15, and these were intended breaks. Actually my only misses came in the first set of 100 du's. I wouldn't have forgiven myself if I had more misses. Set of 40 was done in 20-20, and the last one unbroken. I didn't wanna burn my shoulders in the beginning and try knocking the sets unbroken or even close. I know what I'm capable of and tried to stick to my game plan.

Toes-to-bar was quite consistent all the way. Towards the end my abs were close to cramping but it got avoided, luckily. First set was 10-10-10, then 10-8-7. Set of 20 was probably 8-6-6, then 7-5-3 and last set was something like 6-2-2, with minimum rest. On the earlier sets I dropped from the wall, took couple of steps away from the pull-up bar and returned for another attempt.

I believe my core will be a little sore tomorrow, we'll see about that. It's still gonna be another training day on Thursday. These workouts this week have been great and there's no sight they would be worse later in the week!

Tuesday 12.8: Bar mu's, Ring dips, Pair wod

Tuesday. Skills, bar muscle-ups. Strength, weighted ring dips with wall ball. Metcon, pair workout of running, kb snatches (24kg), and wall ball shots.

Alright, getting together with my main man Tony the Pony is always great! I see this dude pretty much every day of my life but still we don't have that many opportunities anymore to hit a workout together. So I cherish every time that happens. He's a great training partner to have. Always pushing you forward and talking you up so no wonder he's a liked person to be around. Today we drove to Pirkkola, a classic outdoors place if you've followed me before. The place is destined for some bar muscle-up training, and Toni brought his rings from home so we took advantage of those too. We pushed to the limits with a pair workout in the end.

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups (21 reps)

I'd really like to practice this skill frequently now as I've learned the right technique finally. Since I got my first bar muscle-up - probably last summer? - I haven't had missed attempts practically at all. I can get myself over the pull-up bar but my technique has demanded some requirements. There was a time I understood it but then I didn't practice it that much and I kind of regressed to that awkward style where I do the work mainly with the right side of my body instead of using the entire body evenly.

Recap

Recently there has happened a huge progress and I realized the technical improvements and was able to take them in to use. With the help of Pauliina actually. So I really wanted to try them out today and prove myself this is a movement pattern I can do. And I certainly proved it to myself. Took 22 reps in total, in sets of 3-6-7-6. Felt good all they way!

Dips.

• Weighted ring dips 5-5-5-5-10 reps
• With 9kg wall ball between legs

This was a cool twist. It's a rarity to play with weighted ring dips. It would definitely be a good ingredient to the soup. Probably would somewhat help with all work done with the rings, muscle-ups especially. We took couple of sets without any extra weight and then grabbed the wall ball between our legs and completed sets with that 9kg ball. I took mostly 5's but then in the end I took 10 reps. That maybe says I could have taken higher rep sets. For some reason those dips were heavy-ish though.

Metcon. Pair workout, time 20.21

• 5 rounds for time and reps of:
• Athlete 1: Run 350m
• Athlete 2: Complete 8/8 kettlebell snatch (24kg), followed by amrap of wall ball until athlete 1 finishes his run. Then change roles and finish the round

This was lots of fun. It was an individual work being done as a team. We worked towards a common target, getting the work done as quickly as possible. It took us 20+ minutes in total. Either Toni or me was running all the time. While the other one was running his 400m run (it might be shorter), the other completed 8 right hand kb snatches with 1.5 pood bell and then as many reps as possible of wall ball shots in the remaining time of the other one's running.

So I started and went for running for the loop and Toni did kb snatches and amrap of wall balls. As I returned, we changed so that he went running and I started the kb/wb work. Result was the number of wall balls you got each round. My result was 25-25-25-20-25 reps, a total of 120 reps.

My lower back hurt like hell during the snatches. This is sick but those heavy deadlifts have bugged me for a week now. I did them last Tuesday so it's about time to get rid of it. Running and snatches were the ugly part considering that back pain. Other than that I felt great during the wod. Running was not fast, didn't time it but I felt like I can't run that fast. On the wb's I got a steady pace. First round unbroken, and I took that as my target for the remaining rounds. On the second I guess I did 15-10, and something similar in the later rounds. Maybe 3rd and 4th were 15-5-5 and 10-5-5, and in the last round I got 15-5-5, tried to keep the recovery just short so that the tension in the shoulders could be released.

This was an excellent session. Working outdoors is always a pleasure and in good company it's always even better. Hoping to see some friends hit workouts with me outdoors while the weather is still great and summery!

First 10 minutes of the wod