Got one thought in my mind entering the gym: squats. Decided to hit quite a number of them this time and longer sets, totaling a lot more kilos than regularly. Had in mind to go for quick and fierce rowing intervals after squats and finish my legs that way but it turned out the rower was occupied so I had to improvise. It's been long time since I did double unders so it was about time to get my hands on the jump rope again.
Strength.
Back squats 7x5 (100, 110, 120, 120, 120, 120, 120kg)
You can see in the video below my "new style" squats. This is the first back squat video I've been able to publish. I've written to you guys how I was enlightened by Chad Vaughn and his tips was to put ass-to-grass every single time. He phrased it more like full ROM - Range Of Motion - squats. You've got to go as low as possible, either pause squats or then push your butt as deep as possible in the hole.
And I've done exactly that. This hopefully brings help to my clean simultaneously. I need to get quicker in the transition and pull under stage. Currently I've probably been afraid to get under the bar but these squats should increase the confident level of being under the bar in the deepest possible position, like in the clean.
My sets today were 5's, took one set at 100, and another at 110, the rest with 120kg. Even though the weight itself shouldn't be that bad, several sets of 5 reps started to burn my legs and the last rep of the sets was pretty tough. I brought everything home without a spotter and I was confident of doing so but they were heavy still. But damn it feels good to drop down and bounce back up. I'm wondering why I haven't done it this way always. Full range of motion rocks!
Skills.
Double unders, 200 reps
Instead of rowing I took some double unders. It was probably a month ago when I've done this skill for the last time. It was that one 20min amrap where my right calf went to a cramp. Since then it's been impossible to jump. Now it's been okay for a week and I don't have anything stopping me to do all I imagine.
These double unders felt great! My rhythm was on the spot right away and it felt very natural. Felt like my torso was also more upright than normally and I was able to maintain a good form. At least I tried to look from the mirror, and was satisfied on the way those looked like.
Thursday. Strength, split jerk 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (max 95kg). Metcon, 10-8-6-4-2, clean & jerk (60kg) and lateral burpees. Time 4.47.
My focus for today was getting the bar up overhead. The solution for that was split jerk work taken from the rack. Going heavy, not maxing out though. Then for high intensity I took advice of Toni's hint and completed a workout he did just yesterday. I had in mind mixing clean & jerks and pull-ups but those burpees weren't that bad idea after all. Decided to roll the dice with this one. Juuso was there today to workout with me.
I did some clean and jerk work earlier in the week, on Monday. Then, the set-up was a little different as I took the barbell from ground with a clean and then finished it off with 3 touch'n'go split jerks. Plus, it was "every minute on the minute" - work so the nature was a little different. Anyway, it was a great way to get these shoulders activated to overhead work and prepare for this day mentally. Bar felt light on Monday, it was 70kg all the way for 12min emom.
I had determined the weights beforehand, especially for the triples and doubles. I was a little sketchy on the singles and left a little room for listening to my body and make the decisions on the fly. Got the triples done in TnG style without resting the bar in the front rack position at all, just bouncing it back up right away. Those were not bad at all, I felt confident with them. Had some issues with my right shoulder though, it felt very tight and you could say it didn't feel perfect on the lifts when I had my hands straight overhead.
85kg double
Anyway, it was time to add 10kg on the bar and go for doubles. Same thing, shoulder wasn't perfect but the weight itself was okay to handle. Got identical lifts on all 6 attempts at this stage. However, I didn't want to bring too much burden on my shoulder so I jumped to 90kg for the singles. Had in mind doing them all at 95kg but decided to jump there gradually, from 90kg with 2.5kg increase after every jerk.
This was a good session in my opinion. Got good heavy lifts and reminded my body how it feels like having considerable weight overhead. And I got to say it feels awesome! I love having bar up with straight hands, there's something brutal in that =) Let's make these shoulders stronger!
95kg single
Metcon. Time 4.47
10-8-6-4-2
Clean & jerk, 60kg
Lateral burpees
God damned Toni! This was not cool at all. I realized it when Toni said his time on this metcon. Before that I hadn't thought about the length of this workout. Obviously it was going to be short and intense, all in effort. Got to go hard from the beginning. It was kind of a mixture of Grace (30 clean & jerks for time) and 30 burpees with a slight twist: you got to jump over the bar after every burpee. That's a lateral burpee. Toni nailed this one in 6:10 and was one of the toughest stallions at his affiliate. So I had the usual butterflies in my stomach that always come before Grace or Fran.
It was game time baby. My plan hitting in to the workout was doing the first set of c&j's in 5-5. I could push them through unbroken, no doubt but I thought that would bring a disaster pretty soon. I think it was a smart move for me. Got them as planned, then went after burpees. For some reason I have the same issue with lateral burpees & bar-over-burpees as Toni has pretty much all the time ;) that is trouble in counting the reps right. After looking at my performance from the video, there seems to be 13 burpees on the first round and 7 on the round of 8's. Luckily there were anyway more than there were supposed to be, otherwise I would be devastated.
Clean & jerks and burpees workout
Burpees weren't nice for sure but they were the easier movement. No doubt. But they had a serious effect on me. On the round of 8 clean & jerks my shoulders were smashed from the first set of burpees. All of a sudden the bar felt like 70kg. I took this set in doubles, 4x2reps. Round of 6's went in two sets, 3-3, round of 4's in 2-2 and the last one was 2 singles. The bar got heavier towards the end but I kept telling myself this is a quick workout, don't whine and keep moving. Finally I got the work done and the digits stopped at 4.47.
I was very satisfied with this time, considering my Grace is a little sub 3min and there were 30 lateral burpees accompanying those c&j's. Couldn't decided which was burning more in the metcon, my shoulders or thighs. Both were in flames plus my lungs were trying to get mouthfuls of air but it seemed difficult at the moment. This felt horrible as all short "balls to the wall" metcons do but at the same time it felt great!
These guys are phenomenal, the Masters of the Crossfit Games, which means to say they include in the age groups of 40+ all the way to 60+ division. I look up to these guys a lot. Fitness does not look at the age of a human being, take care of your bodies people
This time I focused purely on strength. Wednesday is a day when I usually go to work later than usually so we had time for a training session at the gym with Pauliina. It's awesome I have the possibility to workout with my love on a steady basis as we're working in the same location and can match the schedules together pretty well.
Today was all about getting stronger. Started with heavy squat cleans, and then finished it off with front squats. These two strength movements seem to work perfectly together, especially in this order. At least I enjoy them a lot. My focus was getting some heavy clean singles in my system and focus on the quick turnover and pull-under. It was okay. Could have been a little better but for some reason I'm also satisfied with the lifts.
Clean, 100kg
I get pretty well under the bar but what bothers me somewhat is that I lack the patience to pull the barbell with straight hands higher on my thighs before starting to pull myself under the bar. Had I pulled the bar higher and then shrugged violently, the bar would fly higher, allowing me more time to get under the bar. Anyway, I'll take it. Felt good, as cleans usually do =) One of my absolute favorites! Today my max lift was 110kg which is only 2.5kg shy of my PR. After that lift I dropped 5kg after every rep, down to 90kg.
Front squat, 115kg
Because I take all heavy cleans with squat my legs were already warmed up for front squats. Kept the bar at 90kg and took a set of 4 reps. Then added 10kg for the following 2 sets. Those felt light so I had no other option but to keep adding stuff on the bar, next stop at 115kg. That you can see in the video. It felt very good so obviously 120kg had to be taken too. I'm kind of astonished how come these felt so light. Of course I had to do a lot of work but the bar moved efficiently all the way.
Maybe it was mental game, I don't know. One reason might be my new squat style. I wrote to you guys 1-2 weeks ago that I adopted ass-to-grass squat style. Chad Vaughn was talking about it and I learned my lesson. My mobility for front and back squats allow me to go deep in the hole. Previously I use to go below parallel, then break and hit it back up. Currently, I go to parallel, then drop down, bounce back and then push it with everything I got. Totally different way to conduct squatting. And I believe this new system is absolutely the way to do it in my case. I'm gonna make my legs stronger, increase mobility and convey these also to olympic lifts too.
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!
Monday. Strength, emom x 12min: 1 power clean + 3 split jerk (across 70kg). Metcon, 4rds of: 500m row, 25 push-ups, 12 k2e. Time 14.29.
Finally some overhead work for this guy. For some reason I've taken less weight overhead lately. No specific reason, just haven't done them that much. I took 'em as emom training and then hit a pure cardio blast workout: rowing, old school push-ups and knees-to-elbows. It was a tight package session and tomorrow I'm getting outdoors with 95% probability so it's gonna be a different type of workout again with some friends.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute for 12 minutes
1 power clean + 3 split jerk
All sets @ 70kg
Every minute on the minute rocks, that's for sure. Suits for pretty much every strength movement. This time it was jerks all the way. I wanted to take the barbell from ground to make it a notch tougher and simultaneously work on my power clean with moderate weight. Beforehand 70kg seemed intimidating as I had sealed the weights in my mind already before entering the gym. However, the weight turned out to be rather light.
My 1RM is 105kg and I've regularly jerked 90kg bars up in the air. However, I thought going too heavy in the beginning might bring troubles so I stayed lower and this was emom-workout after all. Obviously I couldn't go as high if I had to complete reps every min. I'll probably redo a jerk workout later in the week and that time forget about the time and just go heavier.
This was a very good stuff for me. I felt confident and the bar path felt natural all the time. I didn't pay attention there would have been any deviations from normal lifts. I was steady, solid and tight throughout the body, from legs to core, to shoulders and elbows. Felt like I dominated the barbell.
Metcon. Time 14.29
500m row
25 push-ups
12 knees-to-elbows
How simple can it be. This was beautiful in its own nature. Row the boat, push yourself away from the floor and complete the round with some core work. Rowing was definitely the nastiest of these 3 movements. I kept the pace sub 1:50 except for the last round when I slipped to sub 1:55 pace.
Those push-ups caught my attention couple of days ago from somewhere. I realized it's such a basic movement, and I really don't do them that often. Very rarely to say the truth. Those would definitely be a good add-in at the end of a training session as a cashout, 50-100 reps for "fun".
As core movements t2b's and k2e's are great. I've been doing toes-to-bar quite a lot so I figured changing it to knees-to-elbow for a while. They were so much lighter than t2b's! That caught me by surprise. I nailed them unbroken each round. Okay, my grip strength was a little shaky towards the end but the movement itself was the easiest for me.
Good and simple workout! It took me 3-4 minutes per round to get the work done. I took the push-ups in mostly in sets of 12-7-6 except for the first round where I did them in 2 sets (18-7). Didn't want to burn my upper body in the first round. No excuses, they felt a lot tougher than they should. Even though I at least tried to keep the recovery short between sets, there must have slipped away valuable seconds. Lesson learned: do more push-ups.
Sunday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Metcon, 5x3min amrap of: 3 ring dip, 6 burpee, 9 box. 1min rest between amraps. Result, 3rds + 6 burpees each round. Cashout, 50 t2b.
The night was long yesterday as we were home at about 2.00pm after our friend's birthday party. That's why I also needed to sleep a lot longer than normally. Ate a huge breakfast, let it settle for a while and then hit the gym. The party was a blast. Teemu had booked an old military boat, a minesweeper, from the 50's that has now been turned into entertainment purposes. This 36m vessel had 2 big cabins in which you could find sauna in the other one and a karaoke space in the other one. Plus on the deck there was a 10-12 person jacuzzi so the surroundings were great. I bet there was about 40 people in there so it was destined to be a fun party and it was cool to see some old friends! We hung about 3 hours in the sea before heading back to the mainland.
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
I wanted to get my hands on the rings again. Toni just did his first mu and was so joyful like a little kiddo in a candy shop. That made me also want to try them out again. I went on without false grip in each attempt. Took a total of 5 reps, you can see them in the video below. A double once and then all singles from then on. I think I had better use of my lower body than normally. I usually don't tend to utilize the "backswing" that much with my legs to get proper momentum but this time I did it better than normally.
There's still work to be done. It feels heavy to do several reps in a row. Of course this would be only a matter of focusing in increasing the amount of practice with the rings. I'd like to see similar progress with the rings as I just had with bar muscle-ups. Those feel light every time I do them and now my technique has gotten a big step forward. I'm sure Toni will be cheering for every rep he does on either bar or rings, and he's gonna say it outloud. Maybe that will push me also practice more on tho skill =)
As I was driving to the gym I took a look at my training plan and realized I didn't have a metcon finalized in my notes. Had about 10 minutes to come up with a good plan and I certainly did. This was a hero wod Chief-style workout where you complete a 3min amrap of 3 movements with a rep scheme of 3-6-9 repetitions. After that 3min amrap you rest for 60 seconds and then repeat the same work. The workout includes 5 sets of these 3min amraps. That makes it a total of 19 minutes, of which 15 minutes is pure work time, and 4 minutes is recovery.
I thought about the movements and how many I could nail in a row so that I would be able to go unbroken on the workout. The point is to keep moving no matter how you feel. That's why bodyweight movements are great for this kind of training. If you have some weight, be sure to keep the load movable. Kettlebell would work perfectly or cleans as in Chief, I think also snatches would suit well. But the weight can't be too heavy as you have to move unbroken.
My result was 3 full rounds, 3 dips and 6 burpees on the first round. I thought the pace would slow down a bit, and be closer to 3 rounds towards the end but my mental game was strong today and no matter how ugly it felt, I kept grinding through those feelings and remained at the same rep amount each round, for all 5 sets. That was 63 reps in total, which means approximately 1 rep every 3 seconds.
3min amraps
Ring dips weren't that bad, they were the easiest of these movements. Burpees after dips felt tougher. However, those were always easy on the first round of the amraps but then from second round on I needed to push more to get them going with the same pace. On the third round I usually slowed down on the burpees a little but body kept moving.
I was excited to get back on box jumps again. It's been 3 weeks without any jumping. No box jumps, no double unders. I've been careful not to make the calf cramp return. I was happy to get some box jumps done and even though they made heartbeat skyrocket, I nailed them unbroken all the way. Felt comfy with them.
Obviously the first amrap was the least challenging. But the level had been set so I had a clear goal for the remaining amraps. I'm very satisfied with the pace I was able to maintain. It happened to be 60 ring dips, 120 burpees, and 135 box jumps. Good amount of reps for this Sunday!
Cashout.
50 toes-to-bar
Just needed to get some extra work done. I've been thinking about this kind of style. Just complete 50 reps of certain movement at the end of the training session without thinking about it too much. Don't time it, just do the work. Get some work being done. For technique purposes and for example these t2b's for core work. You could also do it for ring dips, burpees, push-ups, knees-to-elbows, or light barbell work.
This was a good training session for sure. I was mostly excited about being able to do box jumps and also ring muscle-ups without problems. And the cardio work was great too.
Here's a video of Toni's first ring muscle-up. The joy is something beyond words =)
Saturday. Metcon, 20 power clean (80kg, 300m row, 20 power clean (70kg), 300m row, 20 power clean (60kg), 300m row, 20 power clean (50kg), 300m row, 20 power clean (40kg), 300m row. Time 21.26.
We set up a time to meet at the gym with Juuso and Pauliina. My focus today was on power cleans and rowing. The workout turned out to be great. I'm hoping to get some squats done tomorrow. Heavy deadlifts still feel in my body but hopefully tomorrow's another day. In the evening we are gonna celebrate a friend of ours who's having his 30th birthday party. It's gonna rock!
Metcon. Time 21.26
20 power clean (80kg)
300m row
20 power clean (70kg)
300m row
20 power clean (60kg)
300m row
20 power clean (50kg)
300m row
20 power clean (40kg)
300m row
Nature of the workout was interesting as this was a high-rep workout to say the least. Descending ladder of weights on the power cleans, the number of reps remaining identical throughout the workout. 20 cleans was rough on the forearms. The heaviest set was singles all the way from the first rep on. My max power clean is 95kg so these definitely weren't light.
Second set - 70kg's - went on in sets of 4 reps, 5x4 with some rest between lifts. The bar felt clearly lighter compared to the first one. Breathing was clearly getting faster by the minute. On the 60's I did them 8-6-6. At this moment my forearms were killing me. The bar felt a lot lighter every round. On the 50's I got through in 12-8, and same with the last round. It was kind of sick that the bar felt like I was lifting air in the last round but still, my forearms couldn't take the heat. I mostly did the 40kg cleans as muscle cleans because it was too light to use any legs.
I tried to save my grip strength by using hook grip as much as possible. At least the heaviest singles I did with that grip, and then I started every set with hook grip but as the set went on I might have slipped to regular grip. Anyway, it's starting to feel much more natural to go for hook grip.
Rowing in this workout was more like a recovery period. My pace was somewhere around 1.50-2.00. That is slow and I took it that way intentionally. Didn't wanna burn my grip even more here because I couldn't have smashed the workout any faster.
I was talking Juuso over for a while to do Cindy and finally he broke down and started working. He improved his result with 20-25% compared to the first Cindy he did, this time it was a little over 10 rounds. Great job man. The real crossfit news comes from Crossfit Vantaa where my training buddy Toni nailed his first ever ring muscle-up today! We both started crossfit in the summer of 2012 and muscle-ups seemed like such a far away dream. But we've been working towards those goals and reached them. Congrats Toni for another milestone!
Friday. Session 1: Skills, bar muscle-ups. Session 2: Wall ball shots, running, and handstand skills.
We were going to hit the gym with Pauliina after work but once we were on the locker room I noticed my shorts were not in my training bag, doup! That was a momentary bummer so we decided to drive home and head to the gym later in the evening. However, Pauliina suggested to hit the woods instead and head to a monkey bar station to have some fun with them. The weather was simply perfect and I love working outdoors so there was only one solution to this one. We had a blast training together! Later after eating some food I placed a wall ball on my shoulders and walked to a nearby parking lot for some wb shots and then handstand skills practice.
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups
20-30 reps
This was actually a very good chance to work on this skill set with Pauliina. That's because the pull-up bar is so close to the wall at our regular gym that with my skills / kipping my knees would hit the wall if I tried them over there. I need more space so that's why my bar mu's have always taken place outdoors or at Toni's Box. It is kind of sick that Pauliina was my coach today even though she hasn't done muscle-ups herself. This thing repeats in other aspects of crossfit too. She has a good coach's eye and she's ready to give good tips on form and technique all the time. That has been very useful to me in the course of my crossfit history.
My first muscle-ups were traditional in regards to my form. I landed on top of the pull-up bar with my right hand first and then I twisted my left hand smoothly there too. But it shouldn't be looking like that. And I'm sure it doesn't do good to the joints in the long run. So I've tried to learn the correct style to nail mu's. After looking at it for a while Pauliina threw in some ideas and I tried them in the next set. Basically the main point was that I shouldn't be so hasty with my moves. More patience.
Muscle-ups
These muscle-ups didn't feel heavy as such and my elbows were in much better condition compared to regular muscle-up training. It must be that twisting movements in the joints that doesn't do good for body. But doing the reps correctly is another thing. Then muscles start to get tired after couple of reps for sure. Today I did mostly sets of 5 reps but there was also a 7 involved and then in the end I took a couple or triple. I didn't count them but I'm sure this was the most I've ever done in a day. I was so pumped up about the better form that I couldn't stop doing them. Pauliina was doing her thing between my sets. At least toes-to-bars, monkey bars, and some pull-ups.
Evening session.
Wall ball shots, 80 reps
Jogging between sets of 20 wall balls
Skills, Handstand
When the sun was about to set down I went to my car to get the wall ball, then walked to the nearby sports stadium because there's plenty of empty wall to throw the ball. The intention was not to take a bad ass metcon, I just needed to get some wb shots in my system. I thought throwing 20 reps to the wall, then run a little loop, about 300m and repeat it for a while.
It turned out my lower back is still sore from the deadlifts on Tuesday, and it made it impossible to run a lot. I took couple of loops but then stopped running and focused on wb. This is one of the reasons I'm not fond of doing heavy deadlifts too often. I want to squat, and work hard but going heavy on deadlift kind of paralyzes the whole body. When lower back is sore, it's not that cool to do anything demanding with the body.
After throwing the ball I walked home and at the backyard saw the piece of green and I just couldn't pass it without taking couple of attempts of handstand. Didn't aim to walk, but just stay still and being inverted. It was cool to try this for a while! All in all, the day was a success. It was pleasant to work outdoors with my baby and especially work on these skills that should always be improved and I know there are some real development areas.
Thursday. Active recovery. Row 5k at easy pace. Skills, headstand.
It was definitely a time to take a break from real training and step back. I took some sweat on with rowing, then skills training for a while before stretching out my legs. Now it's time to eat well, get some sleep in this body and prepare for the next workout.
That rowing was at easy pace, it was something like 2:00 all the way, that was my goal. Not that fast, just to get the fluids running in my body but this was not supposed to gas me out. The pace turned out to be good for today.
Active recovery
After rowing for a while I tried my headstand skills. This was easy. I'm happy my body balance is good during this movement. I get to the final position very slowly. Maybe I should try that one also with handstand training. Took a couple of attempts here and they were all smooth. Straight core, no probs in holding the form and also when coming back down I used the same path as I did on my way up.
Those heavy deadlifts really feel in my body right now. I feel like I was hit my a car, body is totally hammered. I realized it only at the gym, didn't see that coming earlier in the morning. I went to work later in the afternoon so we had time to hit the gym in the morning with Pauliina. I went there with blank thoughts and it soon turned out I'd better listen to my body and take it easy this time. Took some press work and then a workout for quality, not for time.
Barbell.
3 shoulder press + 3 push press
Sets @ 40, 50, 55, 55kg
Even though my posterior chain is screaming for help I wanted to touch the barbell, only for a light work though. I did it in complex style of shoulder presses and push presses. Definitely didn't feel like putting a lot of load overhead today. But this was a good one, the weights stayed light and it seemed to suit well for me today. Had no problems with the sets in any of them.
Workout.
4 rounds of:
500m row
15 pull-ups
10 shoulder press (40kg)
This time I have no idea how much this one took me because that was not the main point of the workout. Just needed to get some work done so I took my pauses and breaks after every station. On the rower my pace was 1.50 or a bit faster. I basically focused on doing the work with my legs instead of hands. The goal was to put lower body in action here and save upper body for pull-ups and shoulder presses.
I got the pull-ups unbroken for all 4 rounds. That was not a surprise as such but for some reason my body felt way more tired than normally so that caused the pull-ups to be more challenging than regularly. Presses were light in weight but they were to be completed without using legs at all, as shoulder presses. Usually I don't put shoulder presses into metcons ever but the nature of this one was different as I took my time to recover between movements. So I got these unbroken each round too.
This is part 5 of the series: "Lucas Parker's Road to the Games". I suggest you to take a look at the entire series. Just put the topic on youtube and you will be guided to all sets
Tuesday. Strength, deadlift 5x5 (max 185kg). Pair wod, as a team complete: 60 hspu, 80 deadlift (100kg), 100 kb snatch (20kg). Right after as an individual, 2 min amrap of burpees. Result, 39 reps.
Yesterday I wrote my friend returned from abroad back to Finland and luckily we are working in the same building and thus have the possibility to hit crossfit workouts together. We hooked up right away and it was time to do some deadlifting for strength and then a pair workout with Jasper afterwards. Great session!
Jasper in action
Strength.
Deadlift 5x5 (130, 150, 165, 175, 185kg)
When have I done some serious deadlift strength last time? No idea but it's been long time ago! Jasper threw the idea up in the air and it got to say, it sounded good. I wanted to see where I am at right now with this king movement. We decided to go for 5's all the way. That is, not maxing out on singles even though the weights felt good, but exactly see what is the 5RM currently.
This session went very well. I don't keep track on 3 or 5 rep maxes, I only keep notes on the heaviest single lifts. Anyway, I have the feeling my max heavy set would be 3x180kg. Never have I taken a heavier set, they have been singles if I remember correctly. Those earlier sets felt very good and the iron was light so the only option was to keep adding weight on the bar. The 175kg bar was clearly tougher already but after getting it back on the ground I knew there's potential for more.
At the last set - 185kg - the first and last reps were the most challenging. Getting the bar up from the floor for the first time needed a lot of energy but then I got a good rhythm on and went up and down as required. For the last 2 reps I reset at the top, inhaled, kept the air inside, tried to keep a good posture and then lower the bar to the ground and lift it back up. This was a biggie.
Metcon. Pair wod
As a team, complete the following:
60 handstand push-ups
80 deadlift, 100kg
100 kettlebell snatch, 20kg
Right after, both complete 2min amrap of burpees individually
Result, 39 burpees
After pulling the weights from the ground we hit a metcon together as a team. Chipper style stuff. One movement at a time, first hspu's, and once they were completed we moved on to deadlifts, and finally kb snatches. We split the movements in half so both did 50% of the repetitions. I was surprised those handstand push-ups turned heavy at some point. I thought I would knock that amount of reps without issues but in the end it was something like 4's at minimum. We started with 10's and then slowly faded to smaller sets.
Deadlifts we had agreed on both doing 8's all the way so it was 5 sets for both. We both did them unbroken. It didn't feel good on the grip but we managed to fight through. Those heavier sets caused issues on our palms. KB snatches were sets of 10's, changing the hand after every 5 reps. So it was 5 right hand and 5 left hand snatches, then I passed the kb to Jasper who did his share. The workout took us something like 12.30, after which we kept the clock running and worked for a 2min amrap of burpees individually. It was pure grinding for 120 seconds during which we completed the reps almost evenly with same pace, my result in the end was 39 reps. That was a game changer, a very good twist in the end of a workout.
It was awesome to get a chance to hit a workout with this great guy! Jasper is a friend from way back and it seems like he's gonna headquarter at this gym in the future. Hopefully so. Then we are definitely going to do more workouts together in the future.
Another week of hard work is ahead. I really enjoyed the workouts last weekend. Now it's time to get back to the gym and start grinding. Keep on getting stronger and have metcons in the daily programming to get good lungs and efficient engine. Today the agenda included front squats, emom-workout of cleans and hspu's. In the end there were a bunch of toes-to-bars. The best moment of the day was at the work place's restaurant when I saw an old friend of mine who had been to Denmark as an expatriate. He had started crossfit while working there at Crossfit Copenhagen and is now back in business at the same location where I'm working. We naturally hooked up a workout for tomorrow. I was all smiles after that.
Strength.
Front squat triples
Sets at 80, 100, 110, 115, 120, 122.5kg
I'm glad I've made a comeback to real squatting. There were some holiday trips and issues with my leg so it hasn't been that active squat sessions lately. I'd like to do this master movement about 2-3 times a week. It was front squat's turn to be in the head role as last time it was back squats. We talked the Chad Vaughn tips in length with my bro and we share his opinion. We were enlightened in a sense. I'll try to go for full ROM each and every time I do squats for strength. Not just below parallel but smash that butt to the heels. Today was second or third time squatting after I read Vaughn's post on Instagram.
The benefits are obvious. Mobility increases without a doubt. Plus I want to make it under the bar every time I clean the barbell. I don't want it to be just a deadlift or clean pull without dropping under the bar. If the lift doesn't succeed, it's because I cant's stand up with the load. That's my goal, and I believe there's a lot of potential in my clean right now.
On today's front squats it felt different to traditional squats exactly because of that bounce at the bottom. Just like in squat cleans. I'm very happy on the weights I was able to move. I have to say I don't remember having taken a triple at 122.5kg. There might be but I doubt it. This was a great success!!!
Metcon. Emom x 7min
Every minute on the minute, perform:
3 squat cleans (70kg) + 6 handstand push-ups
I copied this one from Toni's workout on Sunday. Just changed the weights and reps but the idea was great and I saw the potential for a good workout right away. It was difficult to think about the rep scheme though. I did the cleans with a squat @ 70kg and figured 6 reps of hspu might be doable. It was for about 3 rounds. From then on those hspu's started to feel heavy. Cleans were clearly the lighter of these two movements. I did those t'n'go style each minute.
Hspu's were t'n'go for probably 4-5 rounds. The last 2-3 rounds were unbroken too but I had to reset at the bottom position before nailing the last two reps on those rounds. That naturally caused the recovery time getting shorter towards the end which didn't help at all =) I got those 7 sets done within the time frame, and then did one extra set of both movements without the timer running anymore. This was a cruel one, took my juice away wholeheartedly.
Cashout.
50 toes-to-bar
Sets of 25-15-10
After getting my breath back I jumped on the pull-up bar for a cashout which was 50 t2b's for quality. Had no goals for this one except doing them. At first set I took 25 reps, then carried the weights away and came back to nail another 15 reps, then cleaning up the place a little more and finishing it off with 10 more reps to reach 50 total t2b's.
Sunday. AM: 1mile sled drag, 60kg. Time 27min. PM: Benchmark workout Karen, 150 wb for time. Time 7.46.
Great weekend! Yesterday we had a family reunion, annual tradition from Pauliina's side of the family. These people are great and it's a blast hanging out with them. The event is always hosted by Pauliina's parents so we stayed at their place for the entire weekend and came back late Sunday evening. The surroundings and nature at their backyard is just a big gym in my eyes so it's difficult for me not to workout there. After breakfast we took the home made sled from the storage and it was some serious sled drag time and some playing with the pull-up bar. Later in the afternoon after fueling some food I went to my car to get wall ball and hit Karen just for fun.
Sled. Time, 27 minutes
1 mile sled drag, 60kg sled
125m downhill, 125m uphill
Credits to Pat Sherwood, host of the Crossfit Games, for posting this one on Instagram. It could not have come to a better time as we were spending the days in the countryside where we have the home-made sled, built with Kari in the springtime. Today it saw the daylight again as I decided to hit this workout. Totally different in nature to what I thought I would do with the sled. One mile of constant pulling / dragging. Today we weighted the sled for the first time, it was about 22kg, made solely from wood.
I put 38kg worth of stuff inside, a smaller kettlebell and 30kg worth of weight plates. So it ended up being 60kg. The venue was the back yard of the in-laws which is practically a city-owned park with plenty of space. I measured the distance being 125m one way and there's a slight incline on the park which made it a downhill to one way and uphill back to the starting point. One round was thus 250m. One mile equals 1.600m so it was 6 rounds + 100m.
Beforehand I thought it would be my legs that would be burning on a regular basis. And I'm not telling it wasn't so, they were definitely on a burn. What surprised me was the pain in my arms and especially elbows too. The straps came over the shoulders and I kept my hands in a tight package on my chest. Holding the straps there on a steady position for a long time caused a lot of static hold and that resulted in a misery for hands. My elbows were killing me as much as my legs.
On the first set of 100+ meters I thought this might be easier than I figured. As I turned and faced the incline for the first time my mind changed =) It was another game to work through that slight uphill. It obviously wasn't much but you don't need much when you're dragging a load behind you. On the last set I was able to jog a little 'cause the end was looming so nearby. Gave my heart to this one in the end. Awesome workout but mentally tough as you just have to walk with the sled and it feels the goal is not in sight.
Karen. Time 7.46
150 wall ball shots, 9kg
After recovering for couple of hours I was ready for another shot. I had no intention to go after Karen in the beginning. Just throw the ball in emom style. We measured the hight of the wall and marked it with a tape so I would know where the ball should hit the wall. Told Kari I would throw 20 wall balls in a minute, then rest for the remaining of the 60 seconds. Then maybe drop it to 15 reps after a while because it would obviously be tougher. At some point I realized I've done these about a 100 and at that point I reckoned Karen is close by and I went after her.
Couple of L-pull-ups for core work
I started by doing 20 reps per minute and it took me 40 seconds each time, so there was 20 seconds recovery after each set. Continued like tho for 4 rounds (=80reps). From then on I did 15's per minute and there was clearly more recovery time. It was welcomed with warmth. Took 4 more sets of 15 reps. At some stage I stopped looking at the clock because I'm about to complete my first Karen rx'd. The final set was 10 reps to reach 150 reps.
Karen was done in sandals this time. It's summer!
My shoulders were wasted after the workout and breathing was as heavy as the hot summer air. This was a good burner. There might be some time to be squeezed by shortening the recovery periods after the set of 15's. It took about 30 seconds (about 2sec per throw) so I could have started a little earlier. But it was emom workout at that point. My shoulders would definitely have been in more pain but what would have happened to the sets, that remains a mystery. Could have I kept working on sets of 15's to the end or would have I cut them in 10's or something like that.
Cashout. Wash the cars. Before that, move them to a proper spot
At this point we won't get an answer. This was my first Karen ever. Good benchmark workout! I enjoyed this weekend a lot. Thanks for Kari and Maija for hosting us and letting us stay over!
Saturday. Strength, power clean emom. 1-6min 2 reps, 7-12min 1 rep power clean (max 95kg). Metcon, 3min amrap of: 3 power clean, 6 push-ups, 9 squats. Result 115 reps.
Today we are getting together with the family from Pauliina's side. It's an annual tradition to gather up and enjoy the company of nice people around us, hosted by my in-laws. I woke up a little earlier to get a chance to sneak to the gym for some crossfit.
I watched documents of Crossfit Games Champions Mikko Salo, Graham Holmberg and Rich Froning the last couple of days and got this inspiration from Holmberg. The idea was to challenge yourself with the weights on the power clean. I did exactly that. My squat clean is way better than my power clean so it seemed like a good option to power clean the barbell.
For the first 6 minutes you do doubles, then turn to singles. And preferably go up in the weights as you progress. This was every minute on the minutes stuff so there wasn't that much time to recover before the next lift.
I performed this one well. My max power clean before this day was 90kg. And I actually did that record lift couple of weeks ago. So actually it's gone up about 10kg in the past month or so. Not bad!
Metcon. Result, 115 reps
3min amrap of:
3 power clean, 60kg
6 push-ups
9 air squats
My schedule was a bit tight so I didn't have time for a good old metcon so I took a quick one. You probably know benchmark workout Chief. This was one round of Chief with all I got. All in effort and the result was 6 full rounds and 3 power cleans plus 4 push-ups before the 3min time cap came up. In Chief I've done about 5 rounds per amrap. There's a total of 5 x 3min amraps in that workout, with 1min rest between amraps.
Friday. Skills, bar muscle-ups (20 reps). Metcon, 3rds of: 20 pull-ups, 20 wb, 350m run. Time 11.45.
Had an idea to go outdoors to work on my bar muscle-ups. It stuck to my head and I couldn't fight it away, not that I wanted to. Bar muscle-ups are something I enjoy doing a lot! Too rarely do I "find time" to look for a good place for training this skill. Of course I would find time but there's so much other things to be practiced all the time. After bar muscle-ups I took a metcon which turned out to be ideal for this place. Cool Friday night for me =)
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups, 20 reps for technique
I had in mind to shoot for a nearby pull-up bar in the woods but then again I had plenty of time for myself because Pauliina was hanging out at a friend's place for the evening. Why not head to Pirkkola for perfect training possibilities? Grabbed my wall ball to the backseat of the car and drove to this great outdoor sports center.
It was awesome to go for muscle-ups on the pull-up bar. We have a good pull-up bar at the gym but for mu's it's too close to the wall, at least for me and my technique. As you see form the video clip my feet need some space in front of me just before the pull.
It's been a while since last knocking out some bar muscle-ups. Okay, yesterday I did one because one friend asked how they are done but before that I don't remember when I last did them. Probably when I was working out with my brother in Arabianranta someday in the summer.
It wasn't easy to remind my body how to have perfect technique on them. There was that old school twisting in most of the reps. Let's say there was some sort of biased landing on top of the bar but in some reps it was smaller than in others. I really tried to focus on just pulling as high as possible and landing beautifully up there but it wasn't that easy. The reps felt light, very light indeed, but there were some technical issues. Actually, I don't know if bar muscle-ups have ever felt that easy: Felt great about that!
Recap
Metcon. Time 11.45
3 rounds of:
20 pull-ups
20 wall ball shots, 9kg
350m run
In HC Triplet IV: Kettlebell Fiesta we used wall ball for the first time in Pirkkola. I remembered this same spot there, a cross beam with a height of 3.05 and over. So that's ideal for wall ball shots. The pull-up bars are also perfect for mu's and pull-ups. In addition there's a loop in the woods which is something like 350-400m run. I've measured it once for precisely 400m but when I run there it feels a bit shorter than running 400m on a track.
I wrote this workout in a bit different style so that there's high rep sets of both pull-ups and wall balls. Shooting for 20 pull-ups is not something I just rock on and continue working just like that. It feels bad in the end of the set. But the great news is that I got them done unbroken on every round! Felt like a success.
The second movement - wall ball - is one of my favorites. It didn't need a lot of reps in the beginning to find out this is my thing. I believe there's some sort of strength I have on this movement. On this beam it was easy to realized which throws are reps and which are no reps. Had couple of misses - probably about 4 in total - but mostly I hit the target exactly where I needed to.
Because my right calf went to a cramp about 2 weeks ago I've been scared to give a lot of hit to that leg. Running has been off limits for that purpose too. So have been also double unders and box jumps. Today as I jumped on the pull-up bar on the muscle-ups for the first time it hurt there again. That kind of sucked so that's the reason I dragged a bench right next to the rig so I could climb up there.
But anyway running felt good and totally without pain! That was a winner feeling. The first round felt easy and light. It was like my feet were like feathers and didn't weigh pretty much at all. On the second and third round the feeling was from another planet because of my upper body was smashed from pull-ups and wall balls. Legs felt fine still but the upper body stiffness was huge and bothered my running too. The pace was probably world class level but I kept myself moving anyway.
The training day was a good variance and I enjoyed it a lot! It was cool to get those muscle-ups in my system and work on the wall ball mixed up with pull-ups and running. Great stuff!
