Friday. Taking it easy, preparing my body for the upcoming HC Triplet. Better be ready for 3 tough workouts. We're eager and anxious at the same time, stomach full of butterflies! Weather should be awesome, bodies are prepared and our minds with Toni are ready to get it started.
Today's schedule was light work, mostly bodyweight, pull-ups and handstand, some technique for overhead squats and snatches. It was as follows:
We are going to get together with Tony the Pony tomorrow morning and hit it off for 3 metcons with short recovery. While the other one performs, the other one rests. Back-to-back metcons, suppose the feeling is gonna be painful on tomorrow evening and on Sunday.
August was a tough month. Clearly the heaviest I've done in my life. I was building up my strength base and continued to lift heavy all month long. Didn't practically take any break from touching the barbell and it resulted in numbers way beyond previous months. There was a lot of focus on shoulders and deadlift on the strength moves. Lots of cardio and bodyweight as well. There wasn't much I would have neglected.
Benchmark workouts.
DT, done with 32kg kettlebell, time 8.10
Cindy, result 21 rounds + 5 pull-ups, totalling 665 reps.
Strength. 107.000kg
Lots of barbell action. Previous 3 months were around 70k so there was almost 40k increase in volume in August. Can't add the graphs here right now but some key figures were:
Deadlift, 37.000kg
Back squat 10.000kg
Clean 8.500kg
Jerk/Press 11.000kg
Skills. Little less muscle-up training (12 reps) )on the pull-up bar because I felt the urge to practice on my ring mu's. Still waiting for that first one there. Total of 830 double unders and 106 handstand push-ups. In the beginning of August I didn't practice on my handstand skills but then in the last 2 weeks I caught up and practiced on that more frequently. I'm gonna keep doing high rep amounts of hspu's and pull-ups in September.
Bodyweight. Some numbers worth mentioning are:
185 dips
410 push-ups
263 burpees
395 pull-ups
245 box jumps
Cardio. 21.300m
In June I had solid numbers but then in July running and rowing cardio training crushed so I wanted to get them back up. Over 10km of rowing and running both, several times during the month. I'm glad I took them back in the schedule and it's worth utilizing the good weathers and do metcons outdoors and run.
PR's.
Jerk, 95kg
Deadlift, 190kg
Managed to go shoulder-to-overhead with split jerk training, adding it up to 95kg. That 100kg was close, I'm gonna get there! Shoulder training is paying off =) And a lot of deadlift was done as well. Took some singles in the middle of the month and crushed the PR, now it's 190kg.
Thursday. 1h warm-up with colleagues. Then, snatch emom, 3 reps @ 50kg, for 12min. Metcon, 6 rounds of: 250m row, 5 hspu, 10 burpees. Time 14.16.
At work we had we had a 1h training session, directed group session where we lots of squats, sit-ups and push-ups. After the session was over, I went to the gym and did snatch emom training and bodyweight metcon.
Snatches.
Every minute on the minute
3 reps @ 50kg, for 12min
This was nice, that bar flew up nicely and had no probs to get those lifts done. I had to concentrate on each lift to make it beautiful but it was definitely manageable. I was thinking about adding 5kg on the last sets but this time stayed at 50kg each set. Felt good!
Metcon. Time 14.16
6 rounds of:
250m row
5 handstand push-ups
10 burpees
Perfect breather! Entirely bodyweight stuff, rowing, hspu's and burpees. Especially rowing and burpees made my heart beat fast and then the hspu's were getting on my shoulders and triceps. Got to say that for some reason I've learned lately some technique on the handstand push-ups and they are way easier now. Hopefully this is not only the feeling of last two training sessions but a long lasting result of hard work.
I rowed at 1.40-1.45 for a couple of rounds and then slowed down to around 1.50 towards the end. The difference is not remarkable whether you row fast or moderate pace in such a short distance. It's a total of 1.5km. All hspu's were unbroken, used a kip. Those burpees were nasty, I must say. My break times were located right after rowing. Wanted to nail the hspu's unbroken with style. And I did.
Liked this workout a lot. It was challenging considering heavy breathing but the bodyweight movement type of metcons have caught my attention lately and I'm gonna take more of them in my programming this month.
Today was an easier day. I took some squats to start with, then continued to do weighted dips. No idea when I last did them, might have been some time last year =) And then a metcon for which I got inspired by crossfit athlete Garret Fisher's Instagram photo. It was a kind of interval type of rowing metcon.
Strength.
Back squats 5x100, 5x100, 4x110, 4x110kg
Weighted dips, 5x10, 5x20, 5x30, 5x35, 5x20kg
Just to get the feel on the squats, not that heavy, working on form and technique. I did those 4 sets pretty quickly, actually about one set per minute. I was thinking about doing heavier sets as well emom style but my back was little sore so I stayed at 110kg.
For some reason my mind got twisted around weighted dips from nowhere so took a few sets. First bodyweight dips and then adding extra weight. Completed sets of 5 reps with the weights and reached a new max of 35kg. I remember hitting 30kg max earlier.
Rowing. Distance 3.850m
3 rounds of:
2 min row, 1.50-1.55 pace
1 min row, all in
2 min row, 2.10-2.15 pace
1 min walk
This was fun! Gonna redo it some day but definitely increase the volume. This was only for 3 rounds but 5-7 rounds would be more useful in the long run. Doing max effort of 1min row after rowing 1.50-1.55 for 2 min was surprisingly taxing. Maybe not on the first round but from then on yes.
A lot of expectations for this day. Perfect circumstances, Toni as my training partner, Rogue shirt on and we were ready to rumble! How disappointing it turned out to be… My left elbow turned sore on the overhead squats. I had similar pain yesterday after bench but it went over in the evening so I thought everything would be great. But I was frustrated and the feeling is only now starting to fade away, several hours later.
Hspu without a wall
Skills. Handstand training. Toni worked on his handstand skills against wall and some negative handstand push-ups. I did handstand hold and handstand walk. Also tried a couple handstand push-ups without a wall, that was fun!
Feeling good on the handstand. I took a few sets and was able to maintain position somewhat ok.
Strength. OHS, power snatch and clean & jerk.
Overhead squats 3-3-3-3 (40, 50, 55, 60kg)
Power snatch 2-2-2-2-1 (40, 45, 50, 55, 60kg)
Clean & jerk 2-2-2 (60, 70, 80kg)
I felt some pain yesterday and today it made a comeback after warm-up. Can't find any reason for this so I'm confident it's going over as fast as it occurred. On the overhead squats it anyway came back, not when I jerked the barbell up from my back or when I was doing the squats but when I dropped the bar to the floor as the tension released. Anyway, I pushed on with increasing weights and I believe it was important to get some reps on the ohs.
Snatch was easier on my elbow but clean was nightmarish. Actually on the snatch I got decent results. We took some videos with Toni on the Oly lifts, take a look at them below. I took a single lift at 60kg snatch and it came up nicely, at least 200% easier than it came up the first time back in January in the Crossfit Open. That time I did a PR with 60kg and it was some sort of combination of snatch and push press =)
On the c&j I practically didn't work at all. Couple of sets, light weights. Then I dropped off and Toni continued to work on his sets.
Toni's results. I may recall the sets incorrectly but it was approximately something like this.
Overhead squats 5-5-5-5 (30, 35, 40, 45kg)
Power snatch 2-2-2-1-1 (40, 45, 50, 55, 60kg)
Clean & jerk 2-2-2-2-2 (50, 60, 70, 75, 80kg)
That ohs result may be Toni's PR, do I remember right mister? On the c&j he cleaned 85kg once but then dropped the weight down.
Hopefully tomorrow is gonna be a better training day!
This was the first time after Mary last Wednesday that I did a proper old school metcon to put my lungs to work hard. To start the training session, I worked on my ring muscle-up skills, big swing and transition the swing to the dip my jumping from the floor.
Strength. Bench press 5-5-5-5-5 (80, 82.5, 82.5, 82.5, 80kg). Time for some bench action. Yesterday was a tough deadlift day and I totally feel it in my back right now =) Tomorrow is gonna be an olympic lifting day so I found a suitable spot for benching. Did 5's @ 80kg and a little over. I didn't have a spotter so I didn't dare to go to 85kg. I would have taken it up on the second set but those last 3 sets would have been tougher. It was nice to bench after a while, I would have liked to go a little higher but the idea was not to max out but to work on base strength.
Metcon. Result 11 rounds + 6 k2e.
15min amrap of:
9 knees-to-elbows
12 push-ups
15 squats
Wasn't sure what my lungs would say but I felt good in the morning and didn't have any problems in my throat so I decided to hit it. Bodyweight action entirely. K2e's, then push-ups and air squats. I went unbroken on the knees-to-elbows for 9 rounds, I recall. I found that cool 'cause I remember having some troubles in high-rep workouts including this movement. The start is always easy but then it starts to get to the muscles a little too much and forces me to drop from the pull-up bar.
The push-ups after bench is cruel. It was similar last time I did bench for strength and push-ups for metcon. However, when I completed Cindy about a week ago, I managed to do a bunch of them unbroken. I reckon the difference is the strength workout prior to the metcon.
Squats were ok, no problems whatsoever. It was the push-ups that blocked me from going faster. Last rounds of k2e's I had to cut in two sets (6+3) but the push-ups started to create problems from early on. I guess it was the fourth round I had to break it already.
Cashout. Not for time.
50 pull-ups
Wanted to work on my pull-up skills. Last time it was chest-to-bars, today I went regular reps. My upper body was destroyed from the bench and push-ups so these pull-ups were also tougher. Completed 5 sets of 10 reps, easy pace.
Assume the c&j's were rather light for Toni today and especially on the metcon it seemed like he manhandled the barbell. He's working on his hspu skills and I'm sure he's gonna fix it like he did with the pull-ups. Remember that he did just completed 17 pull-ups just like that! =)
Sunday. Skills, double unders 7x30 reps and deficit hspu's. Metcon, 5 rounds for completion: max effort deadlifts (140kg), max effort hspu's.
Deadlifts and handstand push-ups were written in the stars for me. I wanted to hit it hard and get some volume with both of them. I've been putting more effort in deadlifts and posterior chain in general lately. Also hspu's are gonna get my full attention in the fall. Took double unders and deficit hspu's for skills training.
Skills. Du's and deficit hspu's
Double unders 7 x 30 reps
Deficit handstand push-ups
Wanted to put some effort on double unders as well. Can't take them for granted any time. My focus today was to keep my torso upright all the time and concentrate in keeping my legs as straight as possible. There's some more work to be done but in general I'm very satisfied to my double under skills.
A new movement was welcomed with pleasure: deficit hspu's. That means you put for example bumper plates under your arms so that when you land to the ground, your head goes below the level where you hold your hands. Thus, having to use extra power and stronger kip to get back up from the "hole". This was the first time I tried it so I stayed moderate and used only one plate under each arm. I found it surprisingly easy to kip up from there. I want to try with bigger deficit in the near future.
Metcon. ME deads and hspu's.
5 rounds of:
Max effort deadlift @ 140kg
Max effort handstand push-ups
I programmed this workout in the same way as benchmark workout Lynne is carried out. Figured these two movements would suit perfectly together and they are both movements I need to put more focus anyway. I performed well today compared to my strength and skill level. Got a good bunch of reps for both movements.
Results. Total of 54 deadlifts and 49 hspu's.
1st round, 15 + 12
2nd round 12 + 11
3rd round 7 + 9
4th round 10 + 9
5th round 10 + 8
On the first round I nailed 15 deadlifts. Earlier in the summer I was looking for my 12 rep max in deadlifts and that time I was able to get 140kg successfully. So today I was looking to improve on that figure and got it! The first set of handstand puhs-ups was as spectacular. Got a new PR, 12 reps! On the second round it was 12 reps on the deads and 11 hspu's which was also over my previous record (10 reps).
For the third round I put gloves on my hands 'cause I thought it would give me better grip on the barbell. How wrong was I? At 7 reps the bar slipped from my hands and I decided to ignore the gloves on the remaining 2 rounds. That turned out to be a good choice as my grip was way stronger there, also seen in the results, 10 reps both rounds.
It feels awesome to look at the reps on the hspu's. Starting from 12 reps and coming down to 8 reps is solid work. I was able to use that kip to my advantage quite well. In the beginning of the training session the first warm-up hspu's were very difficult but after doing some more training and also deficit hspu's, it started to feel much easier. My previous record was 10 reps and today each of my sets were close to that and twice I went over it, spectacular =)
Saturday. Clean singles (max 100kg). Bar complex, 10 x (1 clean + 2 push jerks). Cashout, 3x10 c2b pull-ups.
Saturday was a day for heavy cleans and barbell complex type of activity. I would have liked to take a metcon in addition but saved it for the upcoming days. I didn't want to risk anything my destroying my lungs out. Therefore I focused my energy to strength and technique training. Did also c2b's in the end, really love the feeling of being able to do them, lots of them.
High enough?
Strength. Clean singles (70, 80, 90, 95, 100kg). I was thinking about nailing a new PR but I guess that cold I caught couple of days ago didn't like the idea. I was able to hit 100kg which was my previous record. I honestly felt there was no problem getting it up so failing at 105kg and 102.5kg may have been lack of courage. Okay, I'm happy I got 100kg up but a little disappointed not getting it heavier. I'm aiming to go clean & jerk next week with heavier weights as well.
Cleaning those 90 and 95kg barbells were easy. Got to keep lifting heavy in order to get body used to those weights. Doing emom training at around 90kg is worth going for. Must say I love the cleans.
Recap
Complex.
10 sets of: 1 squat clean + 2 push jerks
First set @ 70kg, 9 sets @ 80kg
Doing several sets of jerks at 80kg pleases me a lot, boosts a lot of confidence. I remember there was a time this weight used to feel so heavy that I wasn't sure if it's coming up or not. Depending on the day. Now I feel confident I'm getting it overhead every time I try it. Today I did 10 sets of the following set: 1 squat clean and then 2 consecutive push jerks. I took the first set @ 70kg and then added 10kg and stayed with that 80kg for the remaining sets.
Cashout. C2B
3 x 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
This is also something spectacular. Those bar muscle-ups definitely have paid off! I remember when I was wondering how is it possible for people to do pull-ups so that you hit the chest on the bar. After getting my first muscle-up and then some tens after that my pull-up technique has clearly improved a lot. I tried c2b's last week and found myself confused how easy it felt. Today I did 3 sets of 10 reps and it felt good!
Tomorrow I'm gonna hit heavy weights and put my lunges to work as well, I hope!
Got to use a proper kip
Toni's workouts. He was working at the Open Gym at his pull-up skills, handstand and few sets of split jerk with light weights. Finished it with mobility. He did a new PR with pull-ups, little short of this year's goal (20 in 2013), 17 reps today!
Friday. Back squats 3-3-3-3-1 (max 130kg). Complex, 12 x (2 power snatch + 2 ohs) @ 50kg.
I decided to workout today. Having 2 rest days in 3 days is something that really gets under my skin. Got to try being smart anyway so I didn't do any metcons or anything super heavy strength-wise. Back squats by feel and then technique with snatch and overhead squats. Luckily for me, that flu-ish feeling went by as quickly as it occurred!
Strength. Back squats 5x80, 3x100, 3x110, 3x120, 3x125, 1x130kg. I've mostly done workouts with around 100kg, except for the last training session with my bro 27th August. My goal was to increase the amount of squats in all forms as well as deadlifts in August but the reality was that there wasn't much action with squats. Instead, there were plenty of deads. September must witness way more squats. And with heavy weights as well.
I felt good squatting today, really felt good. I guess it still feels that I haven't been playing with heavier kilos lately. I had no plan whatsoever with this part of the training, went on purely by feeling. Did a few sets of triples and managed to push through 125kg. On the heaviest load I got one rep. More training is needed ahead of me!
Recap of the day
Complex. For quality
12 x (2 power snatch + 2 overhead squats)
50kg on the barbell each set
Not extremely heavy. I took each set in about 90sec time frame. I was thinking about emom training but then again, considered to give my lunges a break for one more day. Just in case. Twelve sets of the following complex: 2 power snatches followed by 2 overhead squats with 50kg barbell. I like those snatches. I have some work to do with my technique, guess the bar escapes too far away from my body, it should travel in a very vertical path up the body. I've tried to lean back and pull more aggressively to allow room for the barbell to move correctly. Hopefully it pays off in the long run so it would become natural.
The guy told me today that his quads are killing him. That's because of the pistols. I had the exact same feeling yesterday due to Mary. So today's metcon at the affiliate was a little lighter on the metcon.
I had big plans for today's workout. It would have been an olympic lifts day. Damned it sucks I was not able to go for it. Woke up in the middle of the night having a cactus in my throat and the feeling wasn't any better in the morning either. Nothing serious anyway, I'm hoping to training tomorrow. Maybe not the toughest of metcons but working out still.
In the meanwhile, take a look at the guys at Big Sky. Here's the event for finding out 1 rep max in clean. Sick numbers!
Wednesday. AM: Benchmark wod Mary. Result, 9 rounds + 2 hspu. Total of 272 reps. PM: Skills, handstand
Back from Sweden in the morning, taking a nap, eating and heading to the gym. That rest day was a good thing for me, my body felt good after being a little stiff for a couple of days. Stockholm was beautiful as it always tends to be. It also seems to warm and sunny every time I've been there =) It was awesome to make a comeback there as it used to be Pauliina's home for a couple of months last autumn. It would have been nice to stay a little longer.
I once read Mary is Mikko Salo's least favorite benchmark Girl. For some reason that inspired me to go for this benchmark early this year. I completed 7 rounds + 3 hspu's and today I was able to top that result with about 2 full rounds. Not bad! In April I did this one for 5 rounds for time. Then it was little less than 11 minutes. Today I happened to check time at that point and the digits showed it was about 9 minutes. Realizing I had topped my previous time clearly brought that much needed encouragement in the middle of the workout.
This metcon went very well in all meters. Every set of handstand push-ups were unbroken. I once dropped off the wall on the first rep because of weak balance but jumped right back up on the wall to finish the set. Don't know if I've done 47 reps in a workout, ever. Very glad about this amount!
Mary's rounds of 1-6
The pistol squat always gets me a bit confused. It feels taxing in the beginning as body is not yet fully prepared to do one-legged squats. Even though I mobbed my ankles and legs properly pre-workout. Then after squatting for a while, it gets much easier. Once you've been squatting some more, the strength-part walks in and it gets way tougher to get ass back up from the floor. I managed this movement well today. Same as with the hspu's, probably never smashed as many reps (90) in one session.
On the pull-ups I went unbroken for maybe 4 rounds. For the next 3 rounds I did 11+4 reps, and the last 2 ones it was 9+3+3. I focused on minimizing the rest period between the reps. Once I dropped from the bar, I shook my hands, tried to release the tension and jumped right back there. In my opinion I was more consistent with the breaks and transitions today overall as well. My pre-determined break was placed after the pull-ups. I had the feeling that if I tried to go straight to hspu's, it would have been much more challenging. As I held a break there, I was able to do the hspu's unbroken. Then I figured that I should do pistols right away because the two other movements are not leg-oriented.
Mary's rounds of 4-9
First round was around one minute, the next two ones about half a minute slower, and the following rounds were between 2:10 - 2:50. I was able to pace up on the last 2 rounds and cut some time on both of them compared to the previous one. All in all, I figure this workout went well for me.
After the workout I spent about half an hour for mobility at the gym. Used the resistance band and lacrosse ball to find painful points and then active stretching to finish it. Wish I had enough time on a regular basis to put enough effort on mobility. I've been taking stretching / mobility sessions in the evening, hopefully it pays off.
Handstand. Couple of hours later I went cycling for active recovery purposes and found a perfect place to practice on my handstand skills. Just couldn't drive by, had to stop and utilize the opportunity. In the beginning it was a bit shaky, my legs were waving in the air to all possible directions. Still, I was able to maintain inverted position and move forward. In the end I was focusing more on keeping my legs more together. It's still far from the look of gymnasts doing handstand walk :)
We've been chilling in Sweden this entire day with Pauliina. Wandering around the city, enjoying the warmth of Stockholm and recharging batteries. We'll be sailing back to Helsinki tomorrow morning and I'll be landing in the home gym in the afternoon :)
Today I stayed at home circle and focused on skills training and created a metcon for my kettlebells. In the afternoon we're heading to Stockholm, Sweden, for couple of days with Pauliina on a cruiser so I had to wake up early to do some training.
Handstand. Practiced on both stabilizing myself in the handstand position and also on the handstand walk. Managed to walk a couple of meters and having some sort of balance while doing it. Below I tried only to stay stabile, no to move forward. Happened to move a bit further and backwards =)
Metcon. Kettlebell
30sec on, 30sec off
6min, kettlebell swings, 32kg
2min rest
6min, kettlebell presses, 20kg
2min rest
6min, kettlebell goblet squats, 20kg
Brought two of my bells outdoors and did a metcon "interval" style. Swings, presses and goblet squats (front squats). Six minutes per movement, the rest, and move on to next movement. I aimed for a certain amount of reps and then held on to that figure. On the swings it was 15 reps, 20 presses and 15 squats.
Sunday. Half Kalsu with cleans for time. Time 7.00. Then, 10 rounds of: 5 burpees, 5 power cleans, not for time.
This was destined to be a challenging day. Knew it from the workout that was ahead of me: Kalsu. I've heard people saying it's the worst workout they've ever done and after today's training I understand why! The workout was way stronger than I was. Pauliina and Toni were both joining me, Pauliina for leg work and Toni was working on his shoulders strength, he went after the main site's wod.
Half Kalsu. Time 7.00
50 power cleans for time, 60kg
On top of every minute, perform 5 burpees
Got to say I was not ready for the 100 reps for time. The workout's nature is that you complete 5 burpees on top of each minute, then you have the rest of the minute to do as many reps as possible. Originally this one is done with 60kg thrusters but I had planned to do power cleans instead. Today I did 50 reps for time. I wasn't in the 100 rep shape.
In the first round I did 10 cleans, same on the second one. From then on it was between 5 and 7 reps. It's difficult to describe the feelings during the workout. The first 2 rounds were okay but it hit me probably on the 3rd one. Burpees made me breath heavier and cleans nailed me. And there isn't much to rest as the clock is running and the burpees are waiting if you wait too long.
Pauliina doing leg work
I was wondering did I go too fast in the beginning but on the other hand, I don't think so because I had plenty of time to mark my reps on the paper and wait a few seconds before entering the next minute and next set of burpees. On the 3rd round the barbell began to feel nasty. From 4th to 7th minute it was pure grinding through and hoping to reach 50 reps of cleans.
I believe I still fought well up to 50 reps. Even though it felt awful, I was able to keep on moving. It felt impossible to continue after that.
Half Kalsu. Not for time
10 rounds of:
5 burpees
5 power cleans, 60kg
At 50 reps I was done, simply couldn't go further anymore. I felt so awful inside and had to pause for a while. My intention in the morning was to go as far as 100 reps, all the way. Those burpees made the cleans so much harder. The thought of grabbing the barbell was repulsive. So I took a couple of minutes break after the first set of 50 reps.
But after getting a grip of life again, I was regretting my decision to chill out. Even though I was still feeling it in my guts, I decided to go further, completing 10 rounds of 5 burpees and 5 power cleans. I went slower than the first 50 reps but I managed to finish the workout with some dignity. Totaling 100 power cleans @ 60kg and 85 burpees.
It's been a while since Toni have done pure shoulder strength. Today he completed the main site's workout of the day. And happened to break an old record in shoulder press, mark the new digits at 62.5kg!
