Wednesday. Snatch 8x2 (max 60kg). Metcon, 21-15-9 of: hspu, box, 50 du's between rounds. Time, 9.41.
Another snatch day. This is in my agenda for the near future. Got to get the technique under control. I don't wanna post results of throwing 50kg barbell whereas I can clean weights easily over 100kg. The difference is too big which means to say there's a lot of room for technical improvements.
Took a set of 10 strict ones at this one right after metcon. Good one for developing grip strength!
Oly.
Snatch 8x2 (50, 50, 55, 55, 55, 55, 60, 60kg)
Pauliina was with me at the gym and I'm proud to say this woman is killing the double unders. She's been very consistent with practicing them and now she is dominating this skill! Also got to say that the owners at the gym went shopping at Rogue, respect. They got a "Dog Bone Pull-up Bar" and a "Log Bar" as well. Plus couple of jump ropes. Good purchases!
Anyway, about the snatches. Last session was great. Today I got the barbell high up at the hips before the final pull. The bar moved okay this time too. I put a little more weight than last time and did doubles instead of triples. What I would like to see from the video is that when I land, I would be more on my heels. Now it seems to be too much leaning on front. I can get to the bottom and stay on heels but it usually doesn't go there right away. I'll take these snatches this time. 60kg snatch is not self evident for me so I got to be happy!
Metcon. Time, 9.41
21-15-9 of:
Handstand push-up
Box jump
50 double under after every round
This was fun for 42 reps. I got the first sets of handstand push-ups unbroken. Box jumps were as easy as they can be. They constituted no issues at any point of the workout. Hspu's were not cool on the second round. It was 5-3-3-2-2. Those are small sets. And why those got tough at this point was partly due to double unders. Those were completed in couple of sets, and they fatigued my shoulders a bit. Not greatly but still they had an effect.
Log bar
This got breathing go high at points but then again at the hspu's I got some rest because muscles just couldn't bear it unbroken. That means there was extra rest during the workout. This was a fun one in the end. But the combination of hspu's and double unders is tough on shoulders, at least I feel like it.
Today's agenda was inspired by the partner workout we did with Toni last Friday. I decided to go after a similar one, this one by myself. It was a tough one. My body felt like someone had hit it with a baseball bat. My back is sore, maybe from the dumbbell snatches. Hamstrings and butt cheeks are also beaten up from the squats. That was the starting point for this session.
Foam rolling, mobility and mental check, and I was ready to hit it! Jerks were the ones I was mostly a bit nervous about but then, I remembered how it felt last Friday to throw the barbell around. That really was a mental thing. I took sets at 40, 60 and 70 kilos for couple of reps, then walked around the gym anxiously before tapping the timer on on my cell phone.
It was a 15min work domain, 15 reps per each movement on each round. Jerks were 70kg so it was pretty obvious these were not written to be unbroken. I have probably not done more than 5 reps at this weight ever. Just haven't had it in my program ever. If it has been a big set of jerks, it's been at 60kg or less. So this was a lot of "fun" to do a bit different type of overhead strength.
On the first round I went 8-4-3 on the jerks. That made me feel like a king. 8x70kg was super. That wasn't a max load obviously. No point in burning shoulders on the very first set =) Ten reps would definitely go up. It took me 1:30 to finish these jerks. Second and third round was 6-3-3-3 reps. And the last one which I didn't finish during the time frame was 6-3-2 reps to reach a total of 11 reps.
Pistol squats are rather easy with the left leg but right leg ones are a lot tougher. Might be something to do with ankle mobility. I have sometimes written in the past that it is probably because of the history as a floorball goal keeper. My basic positioning when playing, forced my left ankle to stretch a lot more than the right one.
T2b's were unbroken on the first round, then I believe they were broken as 10-5 reps. This was the easiest part of the metcon. But it had its own spice in the mix for sure.
Monday. Snatch 5x3 @ 50kg. Back squat (up to 5x130kg). Metcon, 5rnft of: 14 db snatch (25kg), 20 push-ups.
Got a chance to go to the gym in the evening. I wanna fix my snatch so I'm anticipating more of that work in the future. Today it was technique stuff, and then squats for strength. In the end I broke a good sweat with db snatches and old school push-ups.
Oly.
Snatch 5x3 @ 50kg
At the end of these snatches I was a very happy man. Something happened in my brains and I really feel like these were one of the best snatches I have ever been able to do. The thing was I pulled the bar with patience and was able to bring it up to my hips before popping it up with hip extension and pulling with traps. Felt very good!
Snatch
Strength.
Back squat 3x100, 4x115, 4x130, 4x130, 4x130, 5x130kg
Huh, somehow the barbell felt very heavy on the 130kg sets. Before that it was like air. Usually I climb up with just small jumps so 15kg is pretty big one for me (115kg -> 130kg). I did those 115kg reps tng style but then 130's were singles, rest on top before knocking another rep. Challenging sets mentally but I overcame those. Told myself this is baby weight considering the loads just couple of weeks ago so that gave me mental strength to push on.
Metcon.
5 rounds not for time of:
14 dumbbell snatch, 25kg, alternating
20 push-ups
I was pretty much done after the squats but wanted to get something in my system anyway. I didn't bother about the timer but I looked from the clock on the wall that I did these pretty much emom style. Odd minutes were snatches and even minutes were push-ups. On the last minute I didn't hold on to that pace anymore. Good workout to finish the session!
Sunday. Metcon, 20 power clean (80kg), 300m row, 20 power clean (70kg), 300m row, 20 power clean (60kg), 300m row. Time, 12.20.
We spent the day in downtown Helsinki again because it's still summery. We were supposed to walk there but the weather changed in a second. Anyway, I went to the gym in the evening for a bad ass metcon. Short and intense. In the beginning I took power clean singles up to 100kg.
One year ago I did this same version with the modification that there were also 50kg and 40kg cleans involved. This time it was shorter and much more intense. My game plan was also different because it was a shorter one. Last time I did 80kg cleans as singles from the very beginning. This time I got a triple and then doubles up to 11 reps. From then on it was singles up to 20 reps. This must have cut some time off the final time compared to last time.
On the 70's it was 5-5-4-4-3 reps. Got to say it was contradictory feeling. As the bar got 10kg lighter it felt a lot lighter. It was an incredible change every round. Then on the other hand, as the bar was not that heavy anymore, you are supposed to move it faster and for bigger sets.
Recap of cleans
The last round was at 60 kilos. Same thing as with the previous round. It was much easier to move the barbell around because 10 kilos had been cut off the weight. Forearms were about to burst out of pain and numbness at this point though. Rowing was okay the entire time. I did it 1:45 pace in the beginning and then closer to 1:50 in the second round. It was about 1:40-1:42 in the last set of rowing.
This means to say I went faster on the Concept2 than last time, and also the cleans seemed to go quicker. Especially the 80kg cleans. I'm happy about how well I was able to push myself on this one.
Saturday. 20 burpee mu's for time. Time, 9.27. Partner wod, 15min amrap of lunges, pull-ups and db thrusters (2x15kg). Result, 5 rds + 3 thruster.
We had a nice day with my wife in the city. Just walked around and enjoyed Helsinki. Weather was beautiful so we just hang around and spent some quality time. In the evening we went to the gym to take care of our fitness. It was one gymnastics metcon to kick off the session and then another one
It's not many times that I've done muscle-ups in a workout so each and every one of these is a pleasure. I've done this once before couple of months ago. This was fun from the very beginning. Because I really haven't done that many muscle-up workouts it's always difficult to know how to pace myself.
Didn't have any idea how much it took me last time I did this one so there was nothing to compare the time to. I tapped the round times after every 5 reps. First reps took me 1:35, reps 6-10 were done in 3:09 so that was a lot slower one. Third portion was 2:31 and the last 5 reps were completed in 2:11.
To my eyes that means I gave too much slack in the process. Really difficult to know at this point how fast / slow one must go with this movement. I don't wanna burn myself on this because then it takes time to recover. The muscle-ups started to feel better towards the end because I really tried to keep good tension in the entire body on the swing.
Partner wod. Result, 5 rounds + 3 thruster
15min amrap
One athlete must do 2x20m walking lunges, bodyweight, all the time
Once the other one does lunges, the other does:
10 pull-ups and the rest of time dumbbell thrusters (2x15kg db's)
This was fun, to throw down with my baby. The point was that the other one was doing lunges all the time. Pauliina started the lunges so in the mean while I did 10 pull-ups and then dumbbell thrusters (2x15kg db's) as an amrap for the remaining time while she was lunging. When she finished those, we changed the lunge game, and it was her time to do the couplet.
Recap of partner wod
Pull-ups were the easiest part of this one, could have probably added a bit. But on the other hand, the purpose was to get dirty with the thrusters. And those got ugly towards the end of each set. The dumbbells were 15kg's each so it wasn't super heavy but the ultimate point was to do plenty of them during the time frame. Got to say this goal was reached pretty well.
Got 20 thrusters on the first round, 15 reps on the next 2 rounds. Fourth round was 12 and the last full round was 15 again. Only had time for 3 additional reps when the buzzer called it quits. This was quality time at its best doing partner wod with my wife.
Friday. Emom x 9-10min: 5 c&j @ 60kg. Deadlift 3x10 (max 140kg). Partner wod, 16min amrap. One athlete rows 500m constantly, the other performs 20 burpee, 15 s2o (70kg), 10 pistols.
We had some after work party taking place this Friday. Okay not a huge all night celebration but some sauna, table tennis, food, and bowling. We still had time to hit the gym with my main man Toni. It was a tight schedule so we decided to keep the training session intense from the very beginning. We had lots of work ahead of us so there was no room for slack time. And it definitely was a fast pace session.
Barbell conditioning.
Every minute on the minute x 9-10 minutes:
5 clean and jerk @ 60kg
It was great to have some quality time with Toni. It's always cool to have a partner throw down with you so I had lots of energy and body was fresh so it didn't take long before I had a barbell in front of me with 60kg load. Clean and jerks, emom style at the classic weight.
In the beginning the load felt good, and the bar moved fast. In this endorphin boost it was like nothing. The enthusiasm faded away little by little and the bar got heavier =) In the end I'm not quite sure if it was a total of 9 or 10 minutes. Anyway, a good bunch of reps with this benchmark weight load. I'm happy how smoothly the barbell listened to my commands.
Emoms
Friday pulls.
Deadlift 3x10 reps (120, 130, 140kg)
We had to move pretty quickly to pull from the ground. Toni had some predetermined program for this as 3x8 at a certain percentage work. I needed to get high rep sets in the system. Hadn't thought of the weights at all. To be honest, I was quite devastated after clean and jerks. It got very intense in the end so lots of energy was consumed there.
Still, these deads felt great. But the weights were not huge. I just took the first set at 120kg. That was kind of light so I kept adding 10kg for each set, last one standing at 140kg. I have tried 20-rep max maybe a year ago, and I remember pulling 130kg on that one. Maybe 10's would be ideal at around 150kg when being fresh.
Partner workout. Result, 3 rounds + 20 burpees
16min amrap of:
20 burpee
15 shoulder-to-overhead, 70kg
10 pistol squat
One athlete must row for 500m constantly
Toni had a master plan to finish the session. It looked like a lot of fun on paper. And it was. But we had a little brainfart with the reps. It turned out that Toni did almost all the burpees, and I did jerks and pistols were distributed evenly. The idea was that either of us would have to sit on the rower all the time, changing turns after every 500 meters. The other one is completing the amrap as such. And when we changed on the rower, the other one continued right where the other one stayed on the amrap.
So Toni started, and did 20 burpees. You probably know it's not very nice to do jerks right after a good number of burpees. So he basically did a double and a single, then it was time to change roles. I finished them and got the pistols done all except one. On the next round it was basically the same ideology. Toni did all the burpees, and 3 jerks. I got to the same situation, had 6 pistols when Toni shouted he has 50 meters left. He clearly was eager to smash some pistol squats so I let him finish it.
On the third round he got through all burpees but one, so I had all the jerks to myself. Doing 15 jerks isn't that light anymore so my time was basically consumed there. Toni got the pistols to himself and once again the burpees. He did 79 burpees, I had 1. He did 6 jerks, I did 39 reps. Pistols were 15/15 for both. Good workout but we could have changed the number of reps, to maybe smaller pieces. Then those would have divided more evenly among us. Most likely at least. Now Toni got a good conditioning piece with rowing and burpees. I got a good jerk workout and muscles burned a lot in the upper body. Different kind of stimulus for both of us.
Thursday. Emom x 10min, odd min 12 kb swing, even min 15 ghd. OHS singles, build up (up to 80kg). Rowing Nancy, time 14.30 (PR).
Today's workout of the day was great. Nancy is one tough lady! I've had a date with her couple of times before and she's mean every time. Prior to that wod I did some overhead squat singles. Didn't quite go the way I planned but it was cool to do those after a long break.
Warm-up.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Odd minutes, 12 kettlebell swing, 24kg
Even minutes, 15 ghd sit-ups
After my regular warm-up routines I did a short workout in emom style to activate the entire body. Legs, core and shoulders all got their share and I felt ready after this one. Kettlebell was the heaviest I found from the place, and it was light for sure. Didn't matter, this was only for warm-up purposes. Ghd's felt also light all the way. Still, this was a good way to get pumped up.
There were basically just couple of reps on overhead squats as they were singles and my max lift is at 90kg. That means to say the limit comes pretty quickly. I haven't had heavy stuff over my head in a while and that really felt like it too. I wasn't that confident pressing the barbell up in the sky. However, once I got it there, the descent and ascend from the bottom felt pretty solid up to 80kg.
On the 85kg I somehow didn't find the path down there. Tried it twice in that same lift but it got desperate. Hopefully my elbows stay good now as they are healed so I could do presses and jerks much more. That would create confidence in having the bar overhead.
Uuh, this is a perfect workout. I've done normal Nancy maybe twice before and rowing Nancy once last year. You have a link couple of rows above to that blog post. This was almost a half a minute PR on the benchmark workout. I was definitely not super confident of hitting a new record but I decided to give it a shot. Plan was to row modestly, and then complete the overhead squats unbroken each round. I've been able to do that before so that game me confidence. On the other hand, I also remember they being very nasty so that was not a confidence booster =)
After the first round my legs were burning so that brought some thoughts in my head that maybe this is not going to that easy after all (like I ever even thought of that). I decided to put those thoughts somewhere else and keep grinding. Rowing was something like sub 1:50 for some time, and towards the end it was about 1:50 on average.
Ohs were unbroken every round and I'm very proud of that. Shoulders were great but my legs were in flames for most of the workout. They got so jammed up in the middle of the workout that I had to beat them with my hands to get some blood flowing and to flush them. Don't know if that made any difference but it was great to go unbroken. This time I also had 43kg on the bar. Okay, that's just a tiny addition to the weight but still, it's nice to get this done in shorter time domain with slightly heavier bar =)
Wednesday. Hang snatch 7x3 @ 40kg. Emom x 10min: 1 hang squat snatch (50kg). Metcon, 13min amrap of, 2-4-6-8… of: hang power clean (60kg), front squat (60kg), hspu. Result, 146 reps.
I went to work at noon so I had a good two hours of training time ahead of me early in the morning. Got to say mornings are not my favorite time for real. Nothing was sore, felt good all the way but somehow I felt much more stiff and fatigue than normally. Especially weights were heavier than normally.
Technique.
Hang snatch 7x3 @ 40kg
That was also the reason why I just couldn't put more weight on the bar. Felt a bit off with even this one =) It took a lot of time to get at least somewhat comfortable with the barbell. As you can see from the video below it wasn't very smooth. It was also difficult to get below parallel. I've noticed that when I widen my feet on the land, my hips can't get low enough. But those legs go wide naturally so I'll try to keep them closer together, with about the same width as in the clean. All my squats (front, back and overhead) have a narrow stance so that's what I'm targeting on this one too.
Snatches
Snatch.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
1 hang snatch (3x45, 7x50kg)
After throwing that barbell in the air for some time I eventually started feeling better with it. I'm not saying it looked any better but it got lighter in the course of action. That encouraged me to throw in another snatch workout. Emom style singles from hang position. Purpose was to go squat snatch but that didn't actualize in the way I was looking for. But there were decent ones too. Got to just keep on snatching more!
First part of the metcon
Metcon. Result, 146 reps (6 front squat on the round of 14's)
13min amrap, 2-4-6-8… of:
Hang power clean, 60kg
Front squat, 60kg
Handstand push-up
This was one qualification event in a Finnish throwdown called Karjalan Kovin, one of the biggest competitions in Finland. It caught my eye when I first saw that one so today it finally ended up on my program. 13 minutes of bar work and hspu's. Idea was to start with 2 reps of each, then 4, then 6, always adding 2 more reps after each round, until the time cap gets you.
Hard to say which element was the toughest, each had their thing in the mix. I broke the cleans the most. Rounds of 2-4-6 were unbroken and combined immediately with the squats. Round of 8's was basically also unbroken. I did 7 reps, and put the bar down because I wanted to recover for the squats. Round of 10's started to beat me up good time. It was 6-3 before the final single and front squats. 12's was 6-5, and then the last power clean before hitting the squats.
Second part of the metcon
Squats really burned my legs. That was no surprise. It was pretty obvious it's gonna hurt a lot. 60kg barbell is going to feel a lot more at certain point. They also brought flames on my lower back. That was probably the most painful thing in this one, and prevented me to drop ass to grass. I went unbroken with the squats up to the round of 10's. At 12's I did 8-4, and then moved on to the hspu's. They were 8-1-1-2. I lost some balance there so it cut to smaller pieces in the end. Other than that they rolled well and were probably the "easiest" part of this. Very good and holistic workout! And tough.
Tuesday. Front squat, build up to a heavy single (PR 138kg). Metcon, 15min amrap of: 12 pull-ups, 300m row, 12 box. Result, 5 rds + 300m row.
Damned it was a tough day at work. We had the longest seminar ever, and had to sit for almost the entire day, for 8 hours. That doesn't do good to human beings. After foam rolling and mobilizing the body I felt okay to get going with heavier front squats. This has been in the back of my head for 3 days now so it was great to get a chance to go for them.
Strength.
Front squat, build up to a heavy single (100, 110, 120, 130, 135, PR 138kg)
Plan was simply to build up, and see how far away I could get today. I reckoned a new record might be available because of all the Smolov squats lately. There were couple of reps at 60 and 80kg, then just singles from 100 kilos on. Those were light up to 120kg. My posture stayed good on these reps and back was in an upright position.
The first heavier one was at 130kg but I felt like that the form looked similar in this one too. Elbows were pointing to the right direction too. Pretty solid lift in my opinion. The next one was my old 1RM at 135kg. I believe I've made that lift 2-3 times in my life but never more than that. There my elbows dropped a little right when I started the ascend from the bottom. That was a tight lift but once I got pass that certain point it was just about standing up. The bottom position, and the turn of direction is the toughest moment.
Before the last rep I did the same thing as when I updated the records on back squat. Piled up 20kg more weight on the bar, stood up with it and counted for 5+ seconds just to feel the weight on my front rack. Psychological game. The descend was slow as hell but at least controlled. That might have eaten up some of the energy but the turnaround back up was alright. In the middle of the ascend my elbows started bailing out and dropping too much. Thus, the lift wasn't as beautiful as I'd like to see but hey, PR is a PR and I'll take it with pleasure!
Squat recap
Metcon. Result, 5 rounds + 300m row
15min amrap of:
12 pull-ups
300m row
12 box
Pauliina hit this one with me. It's been a lot of fun doing same workouts with my wife. And I got to say she's been kicking some ass big time! Rower was a walking distance away from the pull-up rack / box so I used that for recovery. The main inspiration for this one was pull-ups. And I wanted to get heart rate up so rowing and box jumps were great buddies to accompany pull-ups.
I'm happy that I've been able to put pull-ups in my program consistently without any problems. There's been a good bunch of those already in the past month. Those were unbroken today in each of the 6 rounds. That totaled 72 reps. Rowing was 1:45 pace in the beginning and towards the end it was closer to 1:48 pace. The elements were put to this order so that right after rowing you got to go box jumping and burn your legs. Then upper body gets a little rest so I could knock down the pull-ups unbroken. This was a good workout for sure.
Simply didn't have any energy today. Plus I wanna give a little recovery for my elbows. I suppose they are a bit inflamed. Yesterday was a good one with all the focus on lower body. That means to say my legs are beaten up right now. So there were couple of reasons why to stay at home this Monday.
Sunday. Emom x 21min. 1st min: 30 du, 2nd min: 10 pistols, 3rd min: 12 ghd. Emom x 15min: 20m lunges with a 10kg vest.
Today we went to the beach to enjoy the hot summer day. It was a great weekend in general. Lots of relaxation and good times with the family. We also went to see a friend who just got their firstborn couple of days ago. He was such an adorable little kiddo =) In the evening I went to the gym. Got to keep my elbows relaxed now, they are sore as hell.
Bodyweight.
Every minute on the minute x 21 minutes
1st min: 30 double unders
2nd min: 10 pistol squats (5/5)
3rd min: 12 ghd sit-ups
Story in short. Double unders sucked big time. Couldn't find the rhythm at any moment. One set was unbroken, the rest were troubled. Pistol squats went straight, 5 left and then 5 right. Ghd's were easy. Tried also ones with medball to get more resistance. Those felt awkward. Not heavy but the motion was somehow strange and it didn't feel good in my lower back so I did only one set with that ball.
Accessory.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
20m walking lunges with a 10kg vest
I still wanted to get something done, and weighted lunges came to mind. I had a barbell in my back for a test drive but that put too much stress on my elbows so I came up with the vest. 10kg extra weight. The grass matt is 20 meters long so I walked it back and forth for 15 minutes. That was a great quad burner.
It turned out to be a rather surprise workout. My plan was to hit front squats but we went to Klaukkala so that meant an outdoor workout at its best
Metcon.
15min amrap of:
2 rope climb
Sled pull
The distance of the sled pull was about 40 meters one way so it totalled 80 meters. First piece was a decline and coming back was an incline. That means to say the latger piece of the sled pull was much tougher. Plus of course legs got more tired on the comeback. Don't know how much the sled weighed. We put all the plates Kari has. I guess that's pretty much 40+ kilos. And the sled is 20-30kg itself.
First round
It's been time since I had my hands on the rope. This is one of the rare places where I have found a good spot to place the rope hang. There's a perfect tree branch at a good height, something like 5 meters. This climbing thing felt much better than I had hopes for. That means I didn't have to recover that much begween the climbs. Felt like I had a good rhythm going on there. Sled was a lot worse on the body. It totally murdered my legs. Especially on the incline. Got a very good workout out of this!
Friday. Back squat, build up to a heavy single (PR 152kg). Deadlift, build up to a heavy single (200kg). Intervals, every 4:00, perform all out sprint of: 10 deads (110kg), 20 box, 2x20m shuttle sled push (55kg + sled).
At the end of hard core squatting in the Smolov phase, it was only natural to try one rep max for back squat. Today was the day. Turned out I got the prize I was looking for in the form of a personal record kaboom! Then couple of heavier deadlifts, and tough interval action which burned my legs bit time.
Strength.
Back squat, build up to a heavy single (110, 120, 130, 140, 145, 150, PR 152kg)
Deadlift, build up to a heavy single (140, 170, 190, 200kg)
My back was still a bit tight from all the heavy squatting lately. Legs were great, and hips felt also awesome, and ready to pump it. My mobility in the beginning was longer and more extensive for a reason. I wanted to nail these. There was classical foam rolling, dynamic stretching and rubber band work to get joints ready for bigger loads.
Took 60 / 90kg lifts for couple of reps, then purely singles starting from 110kg, and then went up in 10kg jumps up to 140kg. That was the first weight that felt kinda heavy. The previous ones were easy ones. Up to 145kg I took them casually, and with confidence.
From then on I did a lot of mental work. Plus I did something awkward. I put 150kg on the barbell, and then added 10kg plates on both ends of it to make it 170kg. Stepped up with it to make it feel heavy on my back. Held it for couple of seconds, and dropped it back on the rack. Then removed the 10's and went after 150kg. Of course not right away because I wanted to the legs to feel fresh. I've only lifted 150kg once in my entire life so getting that up was almost like a record breaking lift for me.
The reason behind visiting 170kg was psychological. After that 150kg felt much lighter in my back. Turned out to be a good idea. Got 150kg but it was heavy though. This was my goal of the day. I'm pretty sure I would not have gotten this load up before Smolov. Maybe 145kg but not 150kg.
I actually told one fellow trainer at the gym I got what I was looking for but I'm hungry for more. For a while I was wondering how the heck am I going to get that but then the same strategy came down as with the previous lift. Those 10kg plates appeared at the end of the barbell. Stepped up with 172kg, and held it for couple of seconds before re-racking the bar.
Lots of inner talk of being able to make it, then stepping to get the bar on my back. Huffing and puffing, get down, and grind it all the way up. Celebrate afterwards. I'm very happy of making this new PR of 152kg real.
After squats I took couple of heavier deadlift singles. There wasn't really much deadlift reps to be done today. I guess it was 5x60, 4x100kg, and then just singles leading up to 200kg. On the last two I felt like I wasn't able to maintain such a form as I'd like to. Especially the last one so I didn't put more weight on the bar. It's still awesome to hit 200kg any given training day.
Squats and deads
Intervals.
Every 4:00, perform all out sets of the following:
10 deadlift, 110kg
20 box jump
2x20m shuttle sled push (55kg + sled)
Damned this was cruel. It was not classic emom stuff. The main purpose was to go hard on every single set. Not pace it out and save energy. No. Do every set as quick as possible, and rest for the remaining time. Once 4 minutes are full, go for another set.
The sled killed me. Deadlifts and box jumps unbroken of course. That was the purpose. Deads were light but it was perfect weight for this one at least today. Box jumps were surprisingly consuming in the end. But that sled… Huh, what a piece of equipment. It was intentionally light, just 55kg plates on top of what the sled weighs itself. I did not respect this one as much as it deserved. It was just pure evilness. My legs recovered on the first break but towards the end they were tired when starting the rounds 3 and 4. This was freaking great workout!
Thursday. Skills day: Ring mu's, Bar mu's, Handstand walk.
This was intentionally a lighter day, and I concentrated purely on developing my skill base. Good bunch of muscle-ups and then handstand walk to crown the session. It was awesome to witness my lovely wife hit some bad ass crossfit metcon.
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
Bar muscle-up
Handstand walk
I took couple of sets of ring mu triples. These felt alright. Had one miss but other than that everything was good. My focus was to keep tension in the body throughout the motion. Both up and down. At the moment I'm happy on the form. In the evening I watched one of Carl Paoli's video clips where he teaches how to do muscle-ups with ease and I got to say it looks a bit lighter than my versions =) Well, that was no surprise but still I'm happy with these.
It was basically 15 reps on both elements. That was the most I dared to do. Don't know what's up with my palms but with a big volume they tend to tear up. So this was the max I wanted to do. There was more energy that could have been used for more muscle-ups but this was a sensible call. Bar mu's were much easier as they always are.
My gym has the best possible platform for training handstand and handstand walk. The grass matt is 20 meters long so that's plenty for me, and there's almost always enough space to practice this specific skill. I took couple of reps / attempts here, and occasionally was able to walk pretty decent distances. 10 meter was the longest streak.
Wednesday. Emom x 8min: 2 hang squat snatch @ 50k. Intervals, every 2:00, for 14min, perform 5 s2o (50kg), 10 pull-ups, 15 box.
Today was actually planned to be a clean day but I took those extra cleans yesterday with a great end result so this left some room for snatches. It was an emom workout ahead of me, then quick intervals to get heart beat up and feel miserable (of course in a good way) =)
Snatch.
Every minute on the minute x 8 minutes
2 hang squat snatch @ 50kg
It's been some time since snatching last time. Probably didn't do any of them during Smolov, at least not squat snatches. I'm looking to have better hip mobility for snatches in the future due to all the squatting lately. Today I didn't get these on camera. There were tons of people at the gym and I didn't dare to tape this emom with all the people at the weightlifting platforms.
I feel like hang snatches are better on the spot compared to pulling from the ground. The timing is better and I can hit the barbell on my hips rather than my thighs. Which usually happens when pulling all the way from the floor. These hang snatches were from above knee.
These were decent lifts. I believe I jumped a little too much in front and my legs went a bit too wide on catching the bar but other than that they were quite okay. One missed lift on the last or second last set. That's because the bar stayed front too much. The weight was not the issue though. I took a double right after that. Good to have some snatches in the books! I'm planning to hit these maybe twice a week in the future. I just need more practice on these.
Intervals. Each set was 54-55 seconds
Every 2:00, perform the following sequence:
5 shoulder-to-overhead, 50kg
10 pull-ups
15 box jumps
Put all in effort on each interval, then rest for remainder of the 2 minutes
Great one! The weight should have easily been 60kg but elbows are not in full condition. Had to take it light. All the sets took me 54-55 seconds to complete. The idea was to put 100% effort ton each set. No need to shake hands or legs between movements because it was going to be a short interval. Rip through the jerks, then get rid of the barbell and hop on to the pull-up bar. Finally a good bunch of box jumps. Everything was naturally going to be unbroken. Otherwise the programming would have been a little off.
Rounds 3-7
My plan was to hit this for 10 minutes, that is 5 rounds. This started to kick in at about round 3, and I decided at the 4th round to continue up to a total of 7 rounds. Jerks were the easiest part of this one. Their purpose was just to fatigue the shoulder at least a bit so the pull-ups wouldn't be as easy. 60kg would have been a great weight for this. Combination of jerks at that weight plus pull-ups are a nasty combination, and always worth training for. My legs were on fire at the end of the intervals. These intervals where you have a pre-determined rest period are great.
