Wednesday. First workout: 10-8-6-4-2 deadlift (120kg), bench press (65kg), time 6.30. Second workout: 9-7-5, step-ups (80kg), strict handstand push-ups. Time around 11 min. Handstand skills training.
Today's schedule was a bit different. I skipped traditional strength workout and took two workouts to replace it. The first one was purely strength oriented and the second one didn't let me slack at all. First I combined deadlift and bench, then continued with step-ups and hspu, which are my favorite. I love them and hate them. I'd love to master them and do them unlimitless amounts but I struggle with them.
I completed this same workout about two months ago, this time I just added a bit to bench. I like this one, these weights are about 70-75% of my maxes. I didn't time this workout last time, I wrote it took about 5-6 minutes. Afterwards I seriously doubt it because I definitely went faster this time =) I was thinking whether to pile 120 or 130kg on the bar for deadlift and 65 or 70kg for the bench. My body wasn't in such a receptive mode so I took coward step and took the lighter ones. I went unbroken each set, both movements. There might have been space to upgrade the weights to 70/130kg and still go unbroken. All in all, the heavier weights could have been a smart move.
Workout 2. Time around 11 min.
9-7-5
Step-ups, 80kg
Handstand push-ups
What a struggle with the hspu! This was the third time I've ever done step-ups. I've written both earlier times that 60kg I had in the barbell wasn't enough. I upgraded it to 80kg and liked it very much. It was a good move and the instability of the move pleases me. Eighty kilos was good for this amount of repetitions. No problem with them, steady unbroken sets. However, hspu wasn't rolling well today. I just didn't have enough strength to push my body up from the floor. On the first round I banged my head to the floor in sets of 4-3-2. On the second set I had to put a 5kg plate below me. Sets were probably 2-1-1-1, pathetic. Same on the third set. All my strength purely vanished and it was extremely hard to push myself. Maybe it was the bench press prior to this workout or then just lack of practice with hspu. I haven't done this many reps actually at all at once, 21 hspu.
Toni's workouts. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-3 (120, 130, 135, 140, 145kg) and a metcon. Time 15.25.
Tuesday. Front squat (max PR 120kg). Grace (50kg), time 3.10.
I had planned to wake up eagerly and go to the gym. For some reason I slept too late and had to hurry myself on the way. No prob, I had enough time to do some PR's with Toni & Joni =) I went for front squats and hero called Grace. Toni did took bench press, front squat and Grace, Joni concentrated in front squat.
Toni front squatting
Strength. 2-2-2-2-f (90, 100, PR 115, PR 120, f 125kg).
Yeah baby! I wanted to see how much further I could push it with front squats so I took doubles to new digits. I was pumping it with Joni who also managed to squat his new PR of 110kg. I took sets of 90 and 100kg. My previous max was 112.5kg. We thought we put 107.5kg on the bar but after having done my squats I realized there were 115kg, a little miscalculation so to say :) Luckily this way and not downwards. I new it already at 100kg that it's going well today. That 115kg PR lift was easy two rep set so I added it to 120kg and took it up twice as well. I got greedy and wanted to add bets, plates worth 125kg came down but not up. Hey, 7.5kg improve on the max load of my front squat, damned I felt strong!
Front squat, 120kg
Toni shared his old record in bench press with 95kg and front squatted 90kg, which also happens to be his max, dating back to week 47.
Grace. I modified to 50kg. Time 3.10. Grace = 30 x clean & jerk.
This was the third time we've done Grace. First time was 7th September, my time was 5.40, on the same day I PR'd my front squat to 95kg. Hmm, 25kg up in three months time, guess that's ok. Mid-October we took a pair wod with Toni, Double-Grace, and we timed it 5.50. Today my time was 3.10 with same weights, 50kg on the barbell. Next time there are no options, better upgrade it to Rx'd weights, 60kg.
I took 5 sets of 6 reps to reach 30 reps in total. It was mentally easier to go in sets rather than push to the limits and then struggle to the end. I planned to do 6 reps a minute but because my first set was done in about 25 seconds and it didn't feel that bad, I decided to go further rather quickly. I was done two rounds little after one minute. On the second round the bar started to feel heavier and rest periods didn't make their purpose anymore. After fourth round I didn't rest much - at least it didn't feel like it - because goal line was looming somewhere ahead. I pushed through in 3.10 and improved my time with 2 minutes and 30 seconds.
Grace, Don
After I finished, Toni got a boost and wanted to have piece of this girl as well. He had same strategy of 6x5 reps which proved to be a success for both of us. The first time Toni did Grace with 40kg and timed it 4.09. Today he went with 50kg and clock stopped at 4.04.
Monday. Floorball in the evening. Handstand training at the floorball practice.
I just got back from Sweden and due to schedule problems I didn't have time to go to the gym. We had team practice in the evening so I concentrated in that today and crossfit tomorrow. I'll put my alarm clock ringing early in the morning and head to gym with Toni and Joni.
I got addicted to handstand immediately after I realized what it's all about so I practiced some today as well at my floorball training :) I really feel I'm in the verge of breaking through!
Sunday. Back squat 5x2 (max PR 130kg). Metcon kb c&j, kb swings, du. Time 10.06. Handstand skills training.
Second day at the gym in Stockholm. Sunday early afternoon, ready to back squat high numbers. I took different kind of approach to this strength training. 2-rep sets up to new max. Then a metcon which blew my brains out. Finally some handstand skills training. Pauliina focused on shoulders and bottom :)
Strength. Back squat 2-2-2-2-2 (100, 110, 120, 125, PR 130kg).
Normally I take more reps with lighter kilos before hitting bigger weights. Today I squatted front and back squats with empty bar for quite a while to get my joints loosen up and prepare them for real squats. My air squats, lunges and stretching before the back squats were also thought carefully. Then I only took a few 60kg reps after starting my 2-rep sets from 100kg up. This seemed to be a good implementation and worked for its purpose today. I added to 110, 120, 125 and finally PR'd my max load to 130kg. I was extremely happy for today's training!
Metcon. Time 10.06. Kettlebells and double unders.
4 rounds of:
7 kettlebell clean & jerk (doubles 20kg)
7 kettlebell swing (32kg)
50 double unders
One of the sickest feelings during the wod. I haven't had the chance to do doubles with kettlebell clean & jerks. At this particular gym they have two kettlebells of 20kg so I naturally took advantage of those in my metcon. They also have a heavier kb for my swings, 32kg. I did them Russian style, swingin the kb over my eyelevel. Those kettlebells were freaking heavy. I wanted my heart to race fast so I added a twist with 50 double unders between rounds.
Clean & jerk, doubles, 20kg
On the first round I did c&j unbroken, second round 5+2 and third / fourth round 3+2+2. These jerks were the toughest for me in the workout. I've done same movement with same weights with no problems (last time in HC Triplet) but it's been with alternating hands where you get a short rest for each hand before the next rep. Doing doubles allows you no rest at all and it simply kills the shoulders.
I did swings unbroken, even though that ball was heavy as hell. I haven't done 32kg kb practically at all. I'm used to playing around with my own 20kg kb. I'd love to have a heavier one at my use. My double unders are in good shape. Once again, not a single mistake during the workout. A total of 200 doubles, I took them 2x25 each round. It was a tough combination as doubles really make my shoulders burn and then you go straigth to doing clean and jerks. This was awesome and as tough as I thougth beforehand.
KB swing, 32kg
Handstand. I couln't stay away of practicing free handstand. After Pauliina told me some smart words, it hit me how to perform handstand and I'm definitely going to work on this one until I master it completely. Take a look, this is my second time after I understood what should be done when inverted.
Today I'll recharge my batteries, enjoy the Swedish Christmas surroundings and get ready for tomorrow's hard training day. I haven't had many total rest days so I believe this will only make good to my body and muscles. Let them relax, grow and prepare for the next workout.
I've gained 3-4 kilos weight since I started to eat like a horse some time ago. Now I'm at 79-80kg. I believe that was the correct decision as I felt I was eating too little considering the amount I work out. My consumption compared to the energy I gained was not on balance. That's the reason I started to eat tons of food and it really paid off. I gained mass, my maxes bursted to new levels and I don't see more fat in my body after that change so that extra mass has crawled in to my body in correct form.
Hanging out with Pauliina at the city of Stockholm, winter has arrived!
At gym in Stockholm with Pauliina, nice! Good workout, good results. I took strength workouts and finished with handstand skills training. I'll take my metcon next time, which I had in mind for today. It will include kettlebells and hopefully gonna be very rough.
I started off with cleans but it simply didn't go the way I wanted so I didn't get stuck with it but quickly changed to shoulder press, which turned out to be a good deal. I took a PR in shoulder press, adding it up to 65kg.
Shoulder press, 65kg, PR
After shoulder press I moved on to bench press. Alternating with Pauliina, I was determined to hit big numbers on this one as well. My previous max was 2x85kg. Today I took a steady 3 rep set and then put more weights on the bar. New record saw the daylight: 87.5kg. I also tried 90kg but today was not the day for that one. The results for today's strength training were better than I thought when entering the box.
Handstand. The conditions for practising free handstand here in this particular Swedish gym are perfect. There is a large room with a floor covered with soft mattresses. Ideal to train for handstand and handstand walk. I was wondering how I would be able to progress with these skills and asked for Pauliina's view on this one. She simply said I should move my hands when balancing and move my hands if I want to walk with my hands. Well, I listened to her, moved my hands and was able to perform so much better than before. I realized I had never even tried to move my hands when inverted, simply just trying to find a stable and solid form and failing time after time. Today I couldn't stop practicing as I was so happy I was able to stand for a few seconds and move around by standing only with my hands. Awesome!
Toni's workouts. Toni texted he did exactly the same workout I did a litte over a month ago, 20th October. In addition he took that PR with back squats as he promised, he did good today!
I travelled to Stockholm, Sweden, to see my girlfriend, enjoying a few days here with her and coming back to Finland on Monday. Today is a rest day and tomorrow we are getting back to serious training.
After HC Triplet on Saturday 17th November I took an easier and lighter period, I skipped metcons for one week, took only strength and skills training to let my body get a grip. Next metcon was the week after on 24th as we did Sevenish with Toni. It turned out to be a smart decision to let concentrate in strength and skills as I have PR'd bench, pull-ups, shoulder press and deadlift after that.
This period included more handstand and hspu. I want to master them better in the future skills-wise so I'm continuing to put effort in those. Snatch is another key area. My pull-ups jumped forward greatly during November and they are no issue to me anymore, I have proven to myself in metcons that I can complete a number of them in a row but still I'm struggling with chest-to-bar pull-ups so I'll pay attention to training them as well.
17.11 HC Triplet, 3 workouts
18.11 Game day
19.11 Pull-ups and handstand, skills
20.11 Shoulder press, push press (PR), bench press + pull-up clinic
21.11 Back squat, hspu + floorball
22.11 Jogging, push-ups
23.11 Front squat, clean, snatch, ohs
24.11 Sevenish
25.11 Bench press (PR), snatch
26.11 Back squat, metcon, pull-up (PR) + floorball
27.11 Shoulder press (PR), metcon
28.11 Dedlift (PR), metcon
A couple of videos of a Finnish lifter, he's a bad ass
Wednesday. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1 (max PR 165kg), metcon of bench press, ring dips and burpees. Time 7.30.
Yesterday I took a nap after work as I really felt my body needed a break. I had no floorball in the evening so I had the possibility to take it easy and recover. I ate tons of food, slept and chilled. This was the recipe for success today. Both I and Toni PR'd our deadlift maxes big time. And after strength workout I took a metcon which was rough on the upper body. This day was good and hard.
Toni, 130kg
Strength. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1 (130, 140, 150, PR160kg, PR 165kg). What happened, I'm still asking myself? 165kg, you must be kidding me. For warmup I took sets of 60, 90 and 120kg and then started hitting plates on the barbell. I thought 140kg would be tough but once it came up easily I knew instantly I'm gonna try new numbers today. I decided to take 10kg steps up, 150kg and then skipping my old record of 155 and going straight to new PR 160kg. I took a steady three-rep set so natural step was to add bets and go for 165kg. That was a struggle but I nailed it, what a feeling! These weights are over double my body weight so I can't be nothing more than super happy =)
Going for 160kg, PR
Metcon. Time 7.30, bench press, ring dips and burpees.
4 rounds of:
7 bench press (60kg)
7 ring dips
7 burpees
Total of 28 bench press, ring dips and burpees in 7.30. All these three movements took their share of my upper body strength. There was no "rest" for chest and shoulders. Doing ring dips after bench press was rough and even the burpees after those two felt heavy. First round was unbroken. I'm not sure if I did bench unbroken in the second round or not but third and fourth round went 3+2+2 as ring dips ate my juice little by little. Ring dips went unbroken in the first round, 5+2 on the second round and smaller pieces in the last two rounds. Burpees were naturally unbroken because there were so few of them but they made those other two movements more difficult. This was a hard training session, at least my upper body got its share of the work load. I haven't done many workouts where I'm moving rather heavy weights in a metcon so this was a good variety. We discussed with Toni that we must take these more often in a similar way as in the "Sevenish" last Saturday.
Toni's workouts. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1-1 (110, 120, 130, 140, PR 145kg, PR 150kg). Wow, this guy also PR'd his old max with 10kg. His previous max (140kg) came up easily so it was obvious he's gonna take heavier weights up in that workout. Toni went straight to 150kg, failed to lift it so he put 145kg on the bar, took it up once and then succeeded to take also 150kg. Very good job man! I'm wondering how come you've been stuck with that 140kg for quite a while because you made it look easy today.
Guy looked ehxausted, what were your feelings? We did this workout pretty much identically, I used 20kg kb instead of 1pood. In September I didn't have the double under skills in good form, I did them in double-single-double-single mode.
Tuesday. Shoulder press 5 sets (max PR 62.5kg), metcon of handstand hold and double unders, for quality.
My body was still asleep when arriving at the gym, this time alone, Toni will do his training in the evening. I was very happy to hit new records with shoulder press even with a tired body. I haven't done double unders lately so I included a metcon with DUs and handstand moves. This metcon was not for time but for quality with minimum rest.
Strength. Shoulder press 5-5-2-1-f (50, 55, 60, PR 62.5kg, 65 failed). Another record with presses, these have gone well lately! I believe this was the fifth or sixth time in November to hit PRs with presses, that's scary… Shoulder press has improved 7.5kg, push press 7.5kg and bench press 10kg in one month. Today I took 5-rep sets with 50 and 55kg, tried the same with 60kg but managed only 2 reps. Decided to go further with singles, got a new PR with 62.5kg and 65kg was halfway there but didn't get that through :)
Shoulder press, 62.5kg PR
Metcon. Static handstand hold, handstand push-ups, double unders for quality.
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
5 handstand push-ups
50 double unders
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
Total of 200 double unders and hanstand holds as well as few hspu. I was thinking about doing 5 handstand push-ups (my favorites!) each round but reality came into play. Damned they were tough today after shoulder press. Doing double unders also hit my shoulders big time so I did mostly handstand holds against a wall. I wasn't sure how DUs are gonna rock but they rocked solidly! I didn't stumble even once, I only had to take some breaks as my shoulders were going numb, haha. It was awesome to see the skills have not vanished.
Monday. Back squats 5x3 (max 120kg), metcon of back squats and pull-ups, time 10.43, 73 pull-ups.
Alarm clock had its moment at 6.00, I woke up and ate breakfast, then headed to the gym with Toni to go for back squats and back squat + pull-up oriented metcon. My quads were still sore from front squats and thrusters. Toni took bench presses as strength training and then five different Tabata workouts.
Tabata rowing in process
Strength. Back squats 5x3 (100, 110, 115, 120, f 125kg). Nowadays I know I can reach 120kg every time I go for it. 125kg seems to be a tough one, today I tried it once but didn't get it up. Sets of 100, 110, 115 and 120kg succeeded. My legs and joints were not that flexible this time, somehow they were stiff from the very beginning. Even though I put effort on my warm-up and used more time in opening my legs than normally. Anyways, 120kg was the max of Monday squats.
Metcon. Time 10.43. Compare to 21st August. Squats with 60kg, my pull-up reps for each round are in brackets.
18 back squats
Max pull-ups (PR 25 reps)
15 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
12 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
9 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
6 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
50m walking lunges with 20kg bar overhead
Total of 60 back squats with 60kg and 73 pull-ups. Not bad, my pull-ups have improved greatly. I still remember the feelings from that August workout and this was very much similar. All rounds of back squats went "unbroken" but in the second and third rounds I had to take a 2 second pause to shake my legs before continuing further. That 60kg is about 50% of my max load. This workout is not only for time but also for pull-up reps. Last time I got 48 reps, this time 25 more... That's progress, I'd say. The first round of pull-ups witnessed my new PR, 25 reps. On the second round I finished 12 reps and decided to hold on to that number throughout the workout.
50m walking lunges in the end after having done back squat strength training and having done 60 squats in this particular workout really burnt my legs, big time. Pressure in the shoulders and upper back area were considerable because of the pull-ups and the overhead position. I did this one in 20m + 20m + 10m sets. For some reason I like this workout a lot and I will keep on doing this one in the future as well. Try it out and you'll see what I mean =)
Total of 34 dips, 87 sit-ups, 72 hspu, 850m row, 118 double unders. Result for dips was 2reps, 9 sit-ups, 4 hspu, 100m row, 5 double unders. I would say the first round of Toni's double unders were probably the best I've seen from this fellow. It seemed he was like a pro doing his basic double under training. Toni's handstand push-ups were modified to keeping the legs on the stall bars. The biggest thing was that he also made a personal record in bench press, single press of 95kg, nice! Didn't get that on video but here's the 2x90kg
Name of the game: bench press and snatch technique. I haven't done metcons basically at all this week. Only yesterday's "Sevenish"had my heart beating fiercely. This programming was intentional because of two reasons. First of all, I wanted to give my body an easier week after HC Triplet and secondly, my throat was a bit sore so I didn't want to risk health. I still managed to get a good week of work through strength exercises, as well as working for skills and technical issues with light weights. Tomorrow I'm gonna get back on track with metcons, you'll see…
1k row
Strength. Bench press 5-5-5-2-1 (60, 70, 80, PR 85, 85kg). Yeah baby! Previous record of 80kg was a two rep record 1st November and three rep set 20th November. Today I took it up five times, c'mon! As I put the plates on the barbell I simply knew it's gonna come up, and it did. I definitely wanted to pile up more even though I was alone at the gym. Luckily the bench press station has these safety bars installed because I didn't get that third rep up :) I took two reps with 85kg, took one minute rest and then another single with 85kg. I was extremely happy to the results! Every time when I have rowed good numbers in the warm-up I've done records in strength workouts. This time was no exception, my 1k row was timed 3.22. All the bench press videos from the five sets are available in my Youtube channel.
85kg, 2 reps, PR
Technique. Power snatch and squat snatch. I really worked on my technique today and tried to get it going. When I do my thing with an empty barbell, it all seems to fall into pieces. When I look at it from the video, I still see the problems of bringing the bar up too far away from my body and when I do squat snatches my knees tend to lean too far ahead of my ankles in the final position of that "overhead squat". Even with these flaws I like the way my squat snatches look like compared to where I started from. Still, I'd like to be able to add weights, it's pretty pathetic to lift only 40kg snatching. Where will that take a man in the Open 2013? Nowhere. Better keep on training that technique and having the guts to squat when snatching. I will go after 50kg soon.
Squat snatches
Toni had a rest day today. Smart man, tomorrow I bet he has that energy boost and he will break his bench PR =)
Saturday. Workout inspired by "The Seven", seven movements, five rounds. Time 26.00
Saturday morning, tough workout, result happy and tired. Toni was there with me and we pushed through this heavy workout. No separate strength workout today as the metcon included deadlifts and thrusters with heavier weights already and handstand push-ups as well.
Metcon. Time 26.00. Toni did 4 rounds in 31.27.
5 rounds of
7 handstand push-ups
7 thrusters (50kg)
7 knees-to-elbows
7 deadlifts (120kg)
7 burpees
7 kettlebell swings, 1 pood
7 pull-ups
Deadlift
This was a tough one. It was inspired by the workout called "Seven". It wasn't rx'd. The original consists of 60kg thrusters and 2 pood kb swings and lasts naturally 7 rounds. Because of the huge number of handstand push-ups I decided to use foam roll as my assistance so I didn't lower my head all the way to the floor. Toni hasn't performed HSPU's yet so he took advantage of stall bars, he laid his feet on the bars and did semi handstand push-ups.
I had no rush from the very beginning, concentrating in doing the movements unbroken and catching my breath. Everything but deadlifts and thrusters went unbroken. Actually the handstand push-ups with the help of foam roll was too easy. The two movements I was afraid of - hspu & thrusters - were not the most difficult. It was definitely the deadlift, it was the most demanding part of the workout with plates worth of 120kg in the barbell. For the first round of thrusters I took the bar to my chest when lowering it from the upright position and then front squatting with the bar. That wasn't smart so from the second round on I started to do them as real thrusters, flexing my knees when bringin the bar down to my chest and keeping the motion continous up and down. The last two rounds I had to do 5+2 reps, it was such a tough job to go unbroken.
Thruster
Knees-to-elbows usually feels quite light, at least with a small amount of reps. But then, deadlift... Huh, Total of 35 reps during the workout, nice! First round unbroken. The following 4 rounds 5+2 or 4+3 depending on the round. It came up well but it was heavy. It's good that I had this workout because I haven't had deadlifts lately. It usually tears skin off my palms but today's tapes saved my hands.
Burpees I took with easy pace. Kettlebell swings were way too easy, almost a rest period because we don't have heavier kettlebell at the gym. We were thinking about doing swings with two 1 pood kettlebells but didn't want to risk swinging the kb to the knee cap and take an injury =) Pull-ups went unbroken each time, that seems to be the trend nowadays.
Burpee
All in all, this workout was physically demanding. Doing high rep thrusters and deadlifts with heavier weights wasn't that easy. It took quite a while - about hald an hour - so stamina was definitely on test as well. I could have put my body work even harder and shorten the breaks between movements but I thought it's gonna be a nightmare because of the length of it. I'm satisfied with how I was able to partition this workout. It really sucked the juice out of me and I felt great after the workout. We would have gone for the total seven rounds for sure, it was just a matter of schedules. We had to go to work at 9.00 so we were in a rush from the very beginning =)
Toni went to the gym already in the morning, I had the possibility in the evening. Toni did something extraordinary, he improved his record in cleans with 7.5kg up to 82.5kg! C'mon mister, that's great, the leap is huge! Tell us more how did it go up there? I was determined to do front squats today but got inspired by Toni and did cleans as well =) In the end I took technique training for snatch and overhead squats. My metcon free week is over and tomorrow I'm gonna make my heart beat to the beat of a drum.
I took several sets for warm-up until I got to three digit numbers and until I felt my legs were open and joints were loose in the correct sense. 100 and 105 kg weren't that difficult. Adding 110kg to the table was another thing. I took 2 reps once, the third one stayed to the bottom. Second set of 110kg I took it up once and felt after the second rep I had given my everything so I didn't try the third rep. I decided to stay with the same weights and took 110kg for the third time, this time it was a single rep.
My cleans went great with 60kg so I decided to ad 7.5kg. That came up rather easy as well so I went to 72.5kg. It was a tough one, I felt after first rep that's too heavy for several reps. I still wanted to go to my tied record of 75kg to lift it up. I took it up with determination and was ready for today's strength training.
For some reason I still felt I wasn't able to perform at my best level today. That's is somehow awesome because I reached my tops for both movements (front squat PR is 112.5kg and clean is 75kg) even though I didn't feel like I could give everything I have. And training by myself was different compared to doing it with Toni. There's the boost I really enjoy training with other athletes.
After playing with the bar and taking some random snatches and OHS I took six sets of overhead squats starting from the ground, just with the barbell, 20kg, intentionally not adding any weights, purely concentrating in technical issues. Yep, my snatch is ok when I do it as power snatch and with light weights. I feel I have it in control. However, when adding weights I should bent my knees more and go lower. This far I've tried to do them pretty much without squatting at all. My overhead squat position feels difficult, how to keep good form, go deep enough and point those knees out when squatting. I've been working on it and I know that would be the key to go heavier weights with snatches. Lifting heavy weights with only power snatch is challenging. I should definitely go lower and even squat snatch to lift heavier barbells.
Tomorrow I'm gonna meet Toni in the morning to train hard. It's not gonna be an easy workout.
Thursday. Jogging, squats, abs, push-ups. Active recovery.
This day was more like active recovery. I skipped morning training and had floorball training in the evening. However, my neck is a bit stiff so I decided not to put on my gear and try stop the shots of my team mates. I went jogging for little less than half an hour and came back to do squats, abs and push-ups.
5 rounds of:
20 squats
15 push-ups
First set was squats and regular push-ups. This time I really concentrated in my form with the push-ups so that my back wouldn't arch at all. I think I managed it well.
5 rounds of
20 abs:
10 push-ups, narrow stance
Second set, abs and push-ups. I took clearly narrower stance because I wanted to feel it in my triceps more.
Wednesday. Back squats 4-4-4-1 (max 125kg), 4 x max hspu.
I'm still taking it easy this week. In the morning I took only back squats and handstand push-ups. Toni joined the training session and concentrated in front squats and also took a metcon of cleans and double unders. I had floorball in the evening as well.
Back squats. 4-4-4-1 (100, 110, 120, 125kg). I reached my max weights which pleased me a lot. Even though it was not the purpose of the workout it still feels good. The main point was to keep body activated with squats and go deep with rather heavy weights. As I was able to squat properly I decided to put more plates on the barbell. I was able to go for four reps with 120kg, that felt very good. Adding 5kg and reaching my current PR in back squats, 125kg, brought some difficulties. I took single rep, second one failed. Two minutes rest, another attempt of 125kg, I was determined to do two reps. Damned, it was a fail, no reps. Still, a good feeling as all four reps with 120kg with good squat depth were completed, adrenaline was flowing and also got that single rep with 125kg with good form.
Handstand push-ups. 4 x max set of hspu (5, 4, 4, 4 reps). I had decided to do handstand push-ups today as well for strength training too. Four sets of max reps. I've been doing handstand push-ups without any bumpers, plates or anything else where to lower my head. For quite a long time I used to have a foam roll between my hands below my head. As I removed it some weeks ago I'm lowering my head all the way to the floor and then bounce back with the help of shoulders and triceps. By removing foam roll the movement becomes exponentially more difficult and is very demanding indeed. I'm very happy I finally moved to do hspu's without any extra cushions. First set was 5 reps and the following three rounds were 4 reps each. After this I also took some attempts of kipping hspu's and tried to make my body understand how kipping should be done when going for handstand push-ups. It would definitely ease the movement greatly.
Toni's workouts. Front squats 3-3-3-3-3-1 (60, 70, 75, 80, 85, PR 90kg) and a metcon, result 169 reps.
Every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 12 minutes
3 cleans, 50kg
Remaining of the minute double unders
Result of the workout is the total number of double unders
First of all, Toni did a new personal record of front squats. His previous one was 85kg and today he lifted triples up to those weights. Then he still added plates and took a single 90 up, great job Toni! A metcon followed after strength training. I did this workout 28th October and this inspired Toni to do the workout as well. I might take this some day again, now that I can do double unders well, I recall having my breath running extremely wild! And so was to case with Toni as well. Toni's result 169 double unders.
