It was a recreational day at work. Together with Toni we arranged so that a good bunch of my colleagues got a chance to get a first taste of crossfit in their life. It was a 90-minute class of introducing crossfit as a sport and hobby, then warm-up, metcon and cool down. Great way to close the work week.
Metcon. Time, 228 reps (7 rounds + 10 burpees)
12min amrap of:
8 wall balls
10 burpees
12 box jumps
Got to be proud of these guys! It was a blast throwing down with good people. And Toni did a good job hosting our team this Friday. The metcon itself was a lot more brutal than I anticipated. It looks so deceptively easy. I'll tell you, it wasn't.
Bodyweight movements all the way. No need to stop at any point. That made it mentally challenging. There were no excuses. I kept moving and got through almost 8 rounds. Those burpees sucked butt. Really nasty. That seemed to be the general opinion. It was great to see these guys attack it from the very first 3-2-1-go command! There was a lot of eagerness in the air, and they went all in right away.
Thursday. Emom x 10: Snatch complex (up to 55kg). Metcon, 8rds of: 12 s2o @ 50kg, 40m walking lunges, 500m row. Time, 38min.
On Thursday agenda was snatch work in the beginning and then a long metcon for conditioning purposes. That one was easier on the lungs but burned my legs big time.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Power snatch + Hang snatch + Snatch balance
1-5min: 50kg
6-10min: 55kg
Metcon. Time, 38 minutes
8 rounds of:
12 shoulder-to-overhead @ 50kg
40m walking lunges
500m row
After sparring with couple of friends I ended up doing a longer conditioning piece. This was kind of gnarly. Mostly due to the lunges. Those bastards shot my legs. Basically each movement put pressure in the lower body, and it felt after the 38 minutes were done. S2o's were unbroken, so were the lunges. Okay, it's 20 meters one way, and then back down. Rowing was easy pace, at 1:55.
Wednesday. Every 30sec, for 10 min: clean (up to 100kg). Wod, 6rds of: 10 hspu, 10 pistols, 15 pull-ups.
Some oly lifts to begin with, then Mary-style practice to hone on my gymnastics skills. By the way, it's getting closer. The Crossfit Regionals I mean. On Friday the first athletes are going to throw down in California. It's gonna be freaking awesome!
Oly.
Every 30 seconds, for 10 minutes
1 squat clean
0-2min: 80kg
2-4min: 85kg
4-6min: 90kg
6-8min: 95kg
8-10min: 100kg
This was one squat clean per 30 seconds. And after every 2 minutes I put 5kg more weight on the barbell, starting at 80kg and finishing at 100kg. I'm happy on these lifts. First ones were easy, and the jumps were moderate so my body adjusted well to those weights. It was good to see the 100kg cleans went down well too. It's cool to be able to move that weight. Sometimes I take that for granted but then again looking back occasionally from where I come from this is good progress. Wasn't able to clean 50kg when I started crossfit =)
Metcon.
6 rounds of:
10 handstand push-ups
10 pistol squats
15 pull-ups
Didn't time this one and I took it easier than a normal metcon. Wasn't looking for the best possible time. Instead, focused on going unbroken on the sets. Not that I took too much recovery anyway. This burned my lungs anyway. These movements tend to do so at least in my case. Last set of hspu's had to be broken to two sets but other than that it was ub. It is also good to witness doing sets of 15 pull-ups quite often and I've been able to do most of them unbroken.
Monday. Clean and jerk complex 1+3 @ 80, every 2:00, for 10min. Front squat 4x5 (up to 120kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 7 hang power clean (60kg), 10 burpee. Time, 5.11.
I was waiting eagerly for these jerks today. Some oly complex, then strength in the form of front squats, and a quick intense conditioning piece to burst my lungs. In the evening Finland is playing against USA in ice hockey world championships, it's gonna be a blast!
Oly.
Every 2:00, for 10 minutes
1 clean + 3 split jerks @ 80kg across
This was fun. Did 5 sets of 3 jerks, taking the barbell from ground each round. The cleans felt super easy today for some reason. Okay, it's 80kg so it should be too but usually it depends on the day though. This time the bar was light on the cleans. Jerks were touch'n'go with no rest on the front rack at all. That's been my focus lately. Some reps were a bit shaky but all in all it was a good effort.
Strength.
Front squat 5-5-5-5 (100, 110, 115, 120kg. Last set was 4 reps)
Without warm-up I took the barbell in front rack and went for squats. Plan was to build up to a heavy 5-rep set. First set was touch'n'go, next set is on video, and 115kg was heavy. Decided to go for 120kg, and messed it up on the last rep, had to drop it on the fifth lift.
Metcon. Time, 5.11
5 rounds of:
7 hang power clean @ 60kg
10 burpees
This was intense. This really got to my upper body. It was under tension all the time. Plus respiration was also intense all the time. Burpees always seal the deal for heavy sweating and breathing. Cleans got also a lot harder than I thought but it was the combination of these movements. Very good stuff!
Sunday. Gymnastics, strict mu training. Intervals, every 3:30 for 5 sets: 10 pistols, 15 pull-ups, 20 wb's.
This day concentrated in skills training and intervals for conditioning. I got the inspiration to practice strict ring muscle-ups from CF Regionals and as I saw one of my buddies nail some of them just couple of days ago. I haven't tried one in years so I had no idea how they would be like. Afterwards pretty much bodyweight interval work for engine.
Gymnastics.
Strict muscle-up training
Took maybe 10 attempts to get one. Not today but in the future I'll take one. I just need some coaching for this. Got to ask Lauri at the gym how to do one. I did use false grip for these, and got my hand ripped from the wrist. It's unbelievable how easily my hands get ripped on muscle-ups and pull-ups if they are not protected. Blisters, tears and rips all the way.
The thing is I need to keep the rings closer to my chest. That part felt difficult. They easily go apart. Another thing is that on the last reps I remembered to lean backwards on the first moments of pulling. Maybe I should maintain that position a notch longer before pushing forward with my chest, or something.
Recap
These felt much better than they were ages ago when I last time attempted these. It was a very feeling as these have gotten a lot better. I believe this is achievable.
Intervals.
Every 3:30, for 5 sets, all in
10 pistol squats
15 pull-ups
20 wall ball shots
Decided to hit some interval work to get blood running in this body. Pistols, pull-ups and wb's. Tried to minimize the recovery time between elements. I'm very happy I got the pull-ups done without them getting too taxing. I thought they might be the ones that get me today but luckily they feel rather strong now. Went unbroken each time. One round might have been something 1:30 per round, not quite sure, didn't time them that precisely, just kept moving.
Saturday. Squat clean ladder 10-8-6-4-2, climbing weights up to 100kg. Time, 5.48. Skills, 6x5 bar mu's.
The weather is ridiculously beautiful! We went for a morning walk with my baby around Töölönlahti. No wonder there a lot of people doing the same thing. Afterwards I hit the gym for a quicker session. Got the inspiration from the upcoming Regionals.
Ladder. Time, 5.48
Squat clean ladder
10 cleans @ 60kg
8 cleans @ 70kg
6 cleans @ 80kg
4 cleans @ 90kg
2 cleans @ 100kg
The first event at the CF Regionals is similar ladder with squat snatches and heavier weights obviously. It starts with 80kg snatches. I've never seen that kind of weight on my snatch barbell =)
This was a good metcon completed with bar only. I went singles from the very beginning at each weight. Listened to my legs and body and worked through that. First load went nicely. On the second one it got spicy in towards the end. On the 80kg's I guess it was a triple, then singles. At 90kg it got tricky. It's a weight I can manhandle but at this point the previous work had its effect so I needed to focus on every single lift. Two singles at 100kg were cool. The latter burned lower body nicely!
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups 6x5 reps
My body is kinda smashed right now. Especially upper body. Meathead Thursday got my back on the deadlifts. It's been ages since pulling from the ground. Also bench has been missing from my program lately. Doing bench and then 100 ring dips yesterday made my chest and shoulders tight for sure. Still, these muscle-ups rolled well today. This was a definitely a positive thing!
It was very difficult for me to come up with pleasing training plans. Exceptionally there were not a plan when entering the gym and it had to be created on the spot. Had tons of ideas which finally turned out to be the following.
Metcon. Result, 399 reps
20min amrap of:
7 handstand push-ups
7 push jerks @ 50kg
21 box jumps
21 walking lunges
In the beginning this felt like okay, I'm gonna dominate this. Pretty soon I realized that was too cocky. The movements were paired intentionally so that two shoulder-demolishers needed to be completed together and the lower body smashes also right after the other.
It worked just like I thought. Shoulders got fired up on the hspu/jerk combo. Jerks also gave pressure to legs so doing box / lunges right after really got tricky. It was a great workout and kept my breathing high and sweating like a pig.
Conditioning.
For 30 total minutes:
1st min: 10 unbroken ring dips
2nd min: bike
3rd min: bike
Needed to get my head around again after recovering for a while I wrote this one. It meant there were 10 ring dips that needed to be completed unbroken. At least that was the initial plan. At some point I wondered how many rounds I could do without having to drop down from the rings. I'm very happy all 10 rounds got through as planned as this is not my best strength. The next two rounds were written to build engine and endurance on the bike. It worked perfectly as a combo.
Thursday. Deadlift 5x8 (up to 150kg). Wod, 1-10 bench @ 70kg and pull-ups.
Meathead day. Went to the gym very late in the evening but was anxious to get some pulling done. Then I stole the idea for the metcon from one training partner Lauri who just finished something like this one week ago.
Strength.
Deadlift 5x8 (130, 140, 150, 150, 150kg)
It's literally been months since I've pulled from the ground seriously. Maybe deads have been part of metcons but big weights have been non-existing. There's no real reason for that. Maybe it's because my palms tend to get really sore on deadlifts. It's never an issue of hamstrings nor back giving up. It's always about the hands. I get rips and tears from the barbell for some reason.
Metcon. For quality
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 reps of:
Bench press @ 70kg
Strict pull-ups
The previous day was 75 pull-ups but this time I did them strict with supinated grip. That's a rarity for me basically. Thought it would be a good idea to throw them in the mix too every now and then. I got the pull-ups completed unbroken all but the damned last rep =)
My thoughts were optimistic that bench might be ub as well but that did not happen. I recall it was on the 8th round that I had to complete them 5-3 and then the last two rounds were cut too.
Wednesday. Oly, power clean triples (up to 90kg), hang squat cleans (up to 100kg). Front squat 3-3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1 (up to 130kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 21 cal row, 15 pull-ups, 9 thrusters (2x20kg db's).
This time there was no rush at all so I took a good bunch of volume after work day before heading home to eat and recover. It was a whole lot of fun to throw down at the gym with some friends.
Oly.
A - Power clean triples (80, 83, 86, 88, 90kg)
B - Hang squat clean doubles (80, 85, 90, 95, 100kg)
The thing was to hold on to the bar and go for touch'n'go reps on the cleans. No dropping in-between but hold that grip and complete the triples and doubles. Consecutive power cleans at these weights are something I haven't been practicing that much so this was beneficial for sure. I built up to 90 kilos and walk home with some pride in my shirt.
Second part of cleans was hang squat cleans. These are closer to my forte as I can utilize my legs more. Thus, I was able to go to 100kg. Cleans felt pretty good. On the last one I had to adjust my grip before completing the latter rep of the heaviest load.
More barbell work. These were supposed to be done yesterday but I simply forgot to do them. Who does that? =) At home it came to my mind so I postponed it for today. Couple of triples, doubles and singles, with increasing load. The 130kg was heavy and took me a good time to bring it up so I dropped down to 125kg for the last two singles.
Metcon. Time, 15 minutes
5 rounds of:
21 cal row
15 pull-ups
9 thrusters @ 2x20kg dumbbells
After working with the barbell for some time my body felt like the session is about ready. Had to sell the idea of this metcon to myself more than normally. This was stolen from Ben Bergeron, just modified it a little. Original version was c2b pull-ups and thrusters were clusters. I figured it would be a better conditioning piece this way. No need to lean my elbows on my knees that much.
It worked very well for the purpose I was looking for. No idea what the pace was on the rower, just tried to get that Concept2 moving right away as I sat down. Pull-ups were unbroken on the first round, and then 10-5 from then on. Yes they were pain in the ass (okay, in the lats) but somehow I felt more comfortable on those compared to how I imagined they might feel like. There was 75 total reps anyway. Comfortable is probably not the right word, they were nasty. But I was able to keep moving which was the main goal here.
Thrusters kept heart rate up for sure, as did each of the elements in this workout. Went unbroken with the dumbbells. Shoulders got smashed on these though. Legs felt fine on the thrusters but really needed to focus to get the path good on the dumbbells.
Monday. Clean and jerk 1+3 (up to 84kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 4 c&j @ 70kg, 12 pull-ups, 16 ghd. Time, 11.57.
The past clean and jerk or anyhow overhead type of sessions have felt great so I continued that mood by hitting another c&j session. Then metcon including overhead, pull-ups and core work. Holy smoke my hip flexors were on fire.
Oly.
Clean and jerk 1+3 (60 70, 75, 80, 82, 84kg)
These felt good all the way. Just a little shaky on some reps but in general I'm happy with how the barbell moved. These were all touch'n'go jerks which add the pleasure in my head. I didn't even think about it at the moment but now as I go back I got to say it was a big thing.
Metcon. Time, 11.57
5 rounds of:
4 clean and jerk @ 70kg
12 pull-ups
16 ghd sit-ups
Clean and jerks were quick singles each round. It's great that 70kg barbell moves this well. That is by no means an issue to put the barbell overhead. Surely it gets my heart rate up and it takes a toll on the body in overall sense but the main thing is that the bar moves nicely.
Pull-ups were destined to be unbroken and that plan got carried through I wanted it to be. Last round was agony but I got them done. Ghd's were much more painful than normally. It was probably the entire combination that made my hip flexors sore, numb and everything else. It was a lot to handle but oh so good workout!
Sunday. Metcon, 5rds of: 2x100m sled pull, 2x100m run, 2x10 db jerk @ 25kg. Time, 28.22.
After breakfast and croissants I changed clothes and went outdoors to enjoy my time in the sun. The summer is really knocking on the door! Almost clear blue sky and the backyard was empty and ready for sled action!
Metcon. Time, 28.22
5 rounds of:
2x100m sled pull
2x100m run
2x10 jerk @ 25kg dumbbell
Those sled pulls are hella rough. The park has a slight incline / decline which makes it more painful on the lower body. I went 100 meters back and 100 meters back with the sled, then ran the same distance more for recovery purposes, then grabbed the same 25kg dumbbell I used yesterday and completed 20 one-handed push jerks with it.
Sled was alright downhill all but the last maybe 20-30 meters, there was much more friction between the sled and the ground for some unknown reason. Then as I turned around and headed back it was incline and made my calves cry as I had to walk on the balls of my feet. I was a bit anxious about how the dumbbell jerks might feel like at 25 kilos as it's a load I'm not used to. That moved overhead well though.
Saturday. AM. Intervals, every 3:00 for 5 sets, perform 3 rope climbs + 10 db snatch @ 25kg. Metcon, 5rds of: 15 wb, 400m run. PM. Gymnastics, 50 strict pull-ups
It was an awesome weekend to celebrate the First of May in Klaukkala. As you can get a clue from the pictures and videos there is plenty of space to workout and especially in the spring and summer time there's nothing that can beat working outdoors in my opinion.
Intervals.
Every 3:00 for 5 sets
3 rope climbs + 10 snatch @ 25kg dumbbell
This was quite a combo of movements. This is the only place where I can get my hands on a rope for climbing purposes so it's quite rare to attack them. It's a pity since rope climbs are a killer movement and it would definitely improve my overall fitness if I had them more often. I took couple of climbs and then right away more snatches. Holy moses the heart beat and numbness in my upper body.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
15 wall ball shots
400m run (approximately)
This second metcon took place right after the first one. I had left my wall ball at this place previous time so it was time to dig it up from the warehouse. The weather was simply perfect for outdoors training, there's no doubt about it. Felt like taking my shirt off as it was so hot in the sun. First time this warm in the spring.
Wall balls were unbroken and the focus was on minimizing the transitions from wall balls to run and vice versa. I'm very happy on the outcome actually. It didn't take much to get legs going.
Gymnastics.
50 strict pull-ups
In the evening I went outdoors to the terrace to clean up my equipment and decided to take advantage of the situation and completed 50 strict pull-ups. Not for time, just for quality. Felt great to get those in the books too.
Friday. Snatch balance 5x3 (50-60kg). Karhureiret. Time, 14.35. Conditioning, 7rds of: 2min row, 2min bike.
It was a notch longer workout session today. Tried some snatch balances in the beginning to get a feeling of those after a long break. Then some old school stuff from Finland's championships some years ago. That sucked. Then conditioning piece in the end.
Oly.
Snatch balance 5x5 (50, 50, 60, 60, 60kg)
These have been rare in the past months. I had that wrist issue earlier in the year and that caused I haven't done either these nor overhead squats with proper weights at all. It still felt kind of funny even though I have no problems in my wrists and haven't had in a long time.
It was cool to get these done. I'm looking forward to doing more of these accessory stuff for snatch in the future. I'm certain these will build up the confidence for the actual snatch too.
The video is unedited for couple of min
Karhureiret. Time, 14.35. Compare to 15.5.2013
10 back squats @ 100kg
50 kettlebell swings @ 32kg
20 front squats @ 80kg
40 box jumps
30 overhead squats @ 50kg
30 toest-to-bar's
The reason is unknown but I was done already on the swings. Literally I was trying to create excuses not to finish this workout. Luckily didn't but for some reason my body refused to work ideally, even though I had lots of passion to attack this workout.
Yes I got through this faster than before with heavier weights but I can't be satisfied of the effort fully. Especially the kettlebell swings and box jumps stayed to haunt in my head. Had to break both of them. Kettlebell swings more than once. No reason for that. And this was probably the first time ever pausing on the box jumps. Body was just completely in shut down mode. Somehow I got through this and maybe the last two elements went better than I assumed at that point of the workout. Back squats were unbroken, front squats were 5's and overhead squats were 10-8-7-5 reps.
Conditioning. Total of 28 minutes
7 rounds of:
2min row
2min bike
Damned I was over and out after that metcon. Yesterday my gym turned 1 year old so they had a birthday party. There was some leftover cake at the lobby. Once I saw it after the metcon I felt weak in my body and needed to fuel up. That felt like a perfect idea =) Huh, it was delicious!
After some recovery I jumped on the rower and bike combo, 2 minutes each with a running clock for 28 minutes total. That was a good end to the session!
Thursday. Emom x 15min: Cleans (up to 100kg). Front squat 7x5 @ 100kg. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 10 hang power clean (40kg), 12 box, 14 ghd. Result, 293 reps.
Today I'm having a day off from work so I got a chance to hit it early in the morning. I had some studying waiting me up to do so that's the reason the session took place even earlier than normally on free days. Took some clean and jerks in the beginning but shoulders felt tired so I changed it to cleans on the fly and then some lighter front squats. And metabolic conditioning in the end. Good session.
Oly.
Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
1-5 minutes: 3 cleans @ 80kg
6-10 minutes: 2 cleans @ 90kg
11-15 minutes: 1 clean @ 100kg
These were all squat cleans. Decided to go by feeling on these. Even though I warmed up longer than normally my body felt stiff and maybe it was still asleep =) That's the reason why the upcoming front squats turned out to be a notch lighter as well.
Three parts, each section took 5 minutes. 3x80, 2x90, 1x100kg emoms. At first I almost game myself too much slack and thought about going at 80 kilos all the way. Luckily I didn't. These felt pretty good despite the stiffness.
Strength.
Front squat 7x5 @ 100kg
It was fun to get some front rack squats done after a while. The load was moderate, something that needs to be moving smoothly under any circumstances any day. I focused on proper bar path and having a good control through the middle on both ascend and descend parts.
Metcon. Result, 293 reps (8 rounds + 5 cleans)
As many reps as possible in 15 minutes of:
10 hang power clean @ 40kg
12 box jumps
14 ghd sit-ups
This seemed like a lot of fun and definitely was so. Cleans and box jumps were completed right next to each other so there was no time-waste there. Ghd's need to be completed at the other side of the space and you can't do cleans there so this needed to be completed at two spots. That took some transition so I played it in my head before starting the workout.
I figured the walk is compulsory between stations so my strategy needs to be so that once I get to the ghd's I gotta jump right into those and start moving. Same thing when returning from there. Grab the barbell right away (after marking the time of each round). Did all these unbroken for sure. I wrote this so that there are no excuses to stop. Round times varied by just seconds, they were quite sharp around 1:50.
Tuesday. Clean and jerk complex. Start at 40kg, add 5kg, till failure.
It was great to get my hands on the barbell again. I missed that little guy. I bought elbow sleeves from Tallinn and hoped that might ease the pain I sometimes (read: most often) get in my elbows when having heavy barbell overhead. At least this first time those were perfect! Don't remember when I had a 85kg bar overhead without pain.
Complex.
2 power clean
2 front squat
2 jerk
Start at 40kg, add 5kg after each set, go till failure, then start over
This is something I've named Chris Spealler workout. Once saw this wod being done by him and fell in love with it. It was originally so that you start with 50% of your one rep max clean and jerk, then add 5kg per minute and go all the way up to failure. Then start again from the 50% load. I have done this earlier and started at 40kg so I figured doing the same thing this time too.
It was cool to jerk heavier weights than I have done in a very long time, and without no pain which made it even more phenomenal!
