My right wrist is too sore to hit overhead strength that stood in my calendar for today's strength portion. Yesterday was squat / deadlift day so it was only natural to hit a bodyweight metcon with pull-ups and stuff. It turned out to be a real one.
Had to bust my ass off to get those 20 minutes being effective. I knew this would suck big time, and the reality was nothing less. Those sets every round were big and that made it much more grueling. Had it been 10 reps of each movement, the nature of the workout would have been totally different. This was supposed to be hard and to get the stimulus of muscles burning.
My first instinct was to hit the pull-ups in big sets, unbroken if possible, for as long as possible. Then on the other hand, I wanted to preferably be moving and not be worn out on them. So first round was unbroken, then I cut it to pieces to make sure those wouldn't kill me. Second round was probably 11-9, and from third round on it was 11-5-4. That continued for the next 3 rounds and the 6th round was 9-5-3-3 reps.
Pistol squats were the most challenging part of this one. My left leg is remarkably stronger than the right one. It doesn't show normally but pistols point out weaknesses. Mobility and strength are biased on my legs. Left leg pistols brought now issues but right ones turned rough at some point. And this was also the reason why my round times got slower every round. Very demanding movement, especially when there are tens of them, or actually 100 reps.
Box jumps are no biggie for me. That's something I feel comfortable with. I came up with the combination of pull-ups and pistols, and Pauliina was the creator of the third element. Kinda brutal to do box jumps right after pistols. I did them unbroken anyway.
This was pretty much what it looked like on paper. I was able to imagine this one already before the 3-2-1-Go. Tomorrow I have a day off, let's see what I come up with =)
Wednesday. Back squat emom, 2 reps per min. Start @ 60kg, add 5kg per min. Result, 2x140kg. Metcon, 20 deads (100kg), 60 du, 15 deads (120kg), 60 du, 10 deads (140kg), 60 du, 5 deads (160kg), 60 du. Time, 10.24.
"Night shift" at work. My wrist wasn't at its best so I started to bitch out in the morning as it was time to hit the gym. For a second I thought I'd skip training for today. Luckily that wasn't the case as I manned up and hopped on my car. I took a long warm-up to prepare my body properly. It was still mentally difficult to think about hitting heavy triples or fives as regular sets so it turned out to be an emom workout which was perfect for today. Then a deadlift metcon to finish my posterior chain.
Squats.
Every minute on the minute, till failure
2 reps per minute
Start at 60kg, add 5kg per minute
Result, 2x140kg
I really needed this to be emom. It was easy to just jump in it and do the work. At first I thought I'd do this for a while and see how it feels. In the beginning I took some pause squats just to get the feeling. My legs surely didn't feel like it's gonna be a miraculous squat day. Set by set my t-shirt started getting sweaty and around 100kg I realized it's gonna be serious. I got the sparkle back in my eyes and felt great about it. I'm super happy I didn't stay at home!
At one time I checked how much there actually is at the bar and it was 120-125kg. It was getting heavier by the minute and the recovery started to become a factor naturally. My 1RM is 150kg which I have taken up once in my lifetime. On the other case Pauliina slightly touched my ribs so that has to be counted as an assisted one. That last set of 140kg for a double at this stage of the game was a real battle. As you probably can witness from the video that really had to be fought all the way up. This workout went very well in my opinion.
Squat recap
Metcon. Time, 10.24
20 deadlift, 100kg
60 double unders
15 deadlift, 120kg
60 double unders
10 deadlift, 140kg
60 double unders
5 deadlift, 160kg
60 double unders
I had couple of ideas in my mind but I wasn't satisfied in any of those deep in my thoughts. So this came up on the spot. Do some deadlifts boy, and add some skill based element with it. Somehow it was defined as this and it was a good breather. Great to have those deadlifts back in the game! They have been gone for too long. I really hope I can find a way to match those even though there's most likely be lots of squats too. First session after a long pause was a nightmare, my back hurt like a week or so. But then it's been okay.
Noah Olsen, Isabel @ 185lbs / 85kg
The point of this one was to get ascending ladder of weight on the deadlifts with descending reps. Spice it up with 60 double unders between barbell sets. Somehow doubles were bad, really bad. Not a single set was unbroken. Well, that was not my original goal anyway but I had some misses there and that was not cool.
Metcon
Deads @ 100kg went 13-7, round of 15's was 6-5-4, next round at 140kg was 6-4 and the last set at 160kg was unbroken. I wouldn't say any of these sets were unnaturally tough. Not piece of cakes but totally manageable. It was cool to move 160kg barbell in a metcon, it's been a while since last time. Didn't wanna gas out in the beginning, that might have turned out to be a wrong tactic. Great wod!
Tuesday. Clean and jerk complex, 7 working sets of: 1 clean + 2 front squat + 1 split jerk (mostly 90kg). Clean triples (max 105kg). Metcon, 10min amrap of: 6 hang power snatch (35kg), 9 t2b, 12 box jump overs. Result, 191 reps.
Yesterday was a light day because of Super Bowl so my body felt ready for some barbell work. It's been some time since previous bar complex and I had some sort of desire to hit one. Also took couple of sets heavy cleans, and conditioning part was a mixture of light snatches, toes-to-bar and box jump overs. All in all, it was a great session! I took my time to get warm and joints prepared. It took me a good 2+ hours to hang out at the gym.
Complex.
7 working sets of:
1 clean
2 front squat
1 split jerk
Loads: 80, 85, 90, 90, 90, 90, 90kg
These complex stuff are great. It's totally different compared to regular clean and jerk work. Being longer under the stress brings its own twist. Jerk is definitely what is my weak side on these kind of combos. I got these weights done with style but heavier ones could have been too challenging.
Clean was easy, no doubt. Front squats were light if we just look at the weights and compare them to max loads. But in a complex like this they start to bring burden. Especially as there was the jerk waiting around the corner. Jerk is definitely my weaker side of c&j, gotta be putting more effort on that one. More push presses and jerks. Anyway, I'm happy on the way I performed on this one! And the reps were pretty solid on each set. Looked similar, no big differences.
Strength.
Clean 3-3-3-2 (95, 100, 105, 107.5kg)
I had planned on hitting some heavier cleans after the complex. It was supposed to be heavy and it was exactly that. I did these in weightlifting style. I mean they were not touch'n'go triples, more like 3 singles with as minimum rest as possible between reps.
It was positively surprising how high I was able to climb on these sets. I've done 100kg for a triple before but that's the heaviest. Now I got 105kg, there's a video of those lifts below. I knew there's more in the tank so I piled it up to 107.5kg and went after it. I got 2 reps done. Third one fell forward a bit too much and I had to let it go through my hands. That sucked a lot. I really wanted to get that. My training pal said "you'll get it, I already thought you got it".
That was the final trigger for me to try get it once more. I grabbed the bar and pulled. Got it front racked but not in a perfect position. I somehow lost my balance a bit and had to drop the bar. My balance was off too much back and once I tried to drop the bar in front, my right wrist got twisted in a position it didn't want to. So it's been aching for a while now. Hopefully it's just a small thing. Otherwise there's gonna be squats everyday in the future =)
3x105kg
Metcon. Result, 191 reps (7 rounds + 2 snatch)
10min amrap of:
6 hang power snatch, 35kg
9 toes-to-bar
12 box jump overs
This was a good conditioning part in the end. Light snatches, core and hard breathing. That's how I would define this one. It was intentionally light so that it would be possible to keep on going without pauses in vain.
I took the power snatches from high hang position all the way. Those were light, and I liked it. Had they been heavier, it might have had a butterfly effect on the entire workout. Now all elements were completed unbroken each round. For a while I was afraid what would happen with the t2b's. They felt good in the beginning but round by round they got more challenging. Luckily I got them ub for all 7 rounds.
Those box jumps are comfy for me. Don't know what the deal is as those are tougher than normal box jumps but I really enjoy doing them. The number of them was the highest of these three elements and took most of the time and got heart beat high for sure. This was a good triplet to get some action going on and develop metabolic conditioning.
It was Super Bowl Sunday so I had to watch the game! It's broadcasted in Finland in the middle of the night, the game started at 01.30 am and ended at about 5.00 in the morning. Had time to sleep 2+ hours before the game and couple of hours afterwards. I went to work later than normally but for this reason I decided to lay low this Monday. By the way, it was a heck of a game!
Snatch work.
Power snatch
Overhead squat
Snatch balance
Sotts press from back rack
Sotts press from front rack
Mobility
It turned out to be much greater day than I had anticipated. I thought it would be very small gains but I had a training partner with me that has probably the best mobility in this entire country. I admire his elasticity a lot. He suggested we'd work on some oly stuff with barbell only. At first I wasn't that much into it because I had thought about rowing more today but luckily I jumped aboard.
I worked with hang power snatch but mostly on overhead squats and snatch balance. I did enormous amount of reps and went all the way to the bottom position. Between sets I did mobility drills Benjamin suggested and I felt the change right away. Doing ohs and snatch balance after those mobility workouts it was like my shoulders had been replaced with someone else's. It was awesome to hit bottom position with armpits pointing forward much more easily than regularly.
Gotta work these mobility things on a regular basis. I do mobility every evening anyway so just add some new stuff there. In the end I stretched my legs a lot, and felt very good exiting the gym to the sauna.
Sunday. Muscle-ups. Emom x 20min. 1st min: power snatch (42.5kg), 2nd min: 10 burpee, 3rd min: 8 ohs (42.5kg), 4th min: 30 du.
Yesterday's wedding party went late so I had to sleep late to get some training on. It was Sunday evening when I finally opened the gym door. It was supposed to be a little easier one and maybe a longer metcon. It changed during the course of the training session.
Gymnastics.
Muscle-ups
I forgot my balls home on the muscle-ups. I thought it might be a good idea to do like 20 reps for time. Okay, I did singles every 30 seconds for 3 reps, then took 2 fails, and lots my mojo. Finished it for 5 reps and called it quits.
Workout.
Every minute on the minute, for 20 minutes
1st min: 8 power snatch, 42.5kg
2nd min: 10 burpee
3rd min: 8 overhead squat, 42.5kg
4th min: 30 double under
The purpose of the workout was to do bunch of work and keep the intensity moderate, definitely not as high as normally. It's not common for me to put barbell work in a wod like this. Today I thought it might be a good idea to work on my weaknesses with the bar as well. So power snatches and overhead squats were in the game.
As I don't usually do that kind of stuff it was difficult to know how many reps would be suitable. Somehow I ended up with 8 snatch / ohs. Every minute I wanted it to be somewhere around 20 seconds of work and these actually were pretty much there, max 25 seconds on each movement. And the idea was naturally to do them unbroken.
Recap
This one totaled for 20 minutes which means it was 5 rounds of all movements. First round was what I was looking for, light work after lots of heavier training days. Round by round it got tougher. It was obvious these reps are gonna be done but I just felt my body thinking it's getting heavier all the time. I had one miss on the double unders so I punished myself on the last round by doing 50 reps instead of 30.
It was a good workout and I got a chance to really improve on these two weaknesses, snatch and overhead squats.
It's been busy! Haven't found time to write the specs of my workouts in the last two days. Today we were at friends' wedding party. Good party for sure! I was working out with my bro and his kids Saturday morning. Squats, deads and a metcon. Good session!
Squat.
Back squat 1-1-1-1-1-1 (all sets 130kg)
My legs were stiff as rocks as I entered the gym so I figured some squatting might make good to them. Well, I don't know if that was the case. Those squats were not as smooth as I had hoped for but anyway now prob with these singles.
Squats and deads
Pulling.
Deadlift 5x7 (130, 135, 140, 145, 150kg)
Last time I pulled heavy my back was sore for a week =) That was a eye opener that there needs to be deadlifts more often. It's balancing between squats and deadlifts and I need to find my compromise between them.
Metcon. Result, 236 reps (9rds + 2 clean)
15min amrap of:
2 power clean, 80kg
8 handstand push-ups
16 box jumps, 61cm
My bro was working out beside me. He did his own programming from Crossfit Invictus Masters program and it sure looked tough. He did two metcons today, first one a combo of t2b's and box jumps for a 5min amrap. The second one was much nastier, 5min amrap of 50kg thrusters and normal burpees, starting at 2 reps and adding 2 more reps after every round. Looked awful.
My program consisted of squats, deadlifts and once my bro left I stayed there to come up with a metcon. I wanted a heavier barbell, and then bodyweight stuff. That bar needed to be something that would not slow down the intensity so it turned to 80kg power clean. Heavy'ish power clean in a metcon, then lots of hspu's in a row. Also, 16 box jumps is quite much.
Recap
I was able to keep up the pace well during the metcon. It was a long 15 minutes. But the pace stayed pretty good throughout the wod and I'm pretty proud of myself. It was somewhere around 1:30-2:00 per round. It felt bad and felt like it's never gonna end. But round by round it went by and finally the clock reached 15 minutes and I was done. Took cleans as singles but everything else went unbroken.
Friday. Ohs emom x 15min (50-70kg). Open 14.2, result 115 reps.
I ended the work week by hitting the gym on Friday and focused on my weakness, overhead squat. Definitely not a strong side in my physical ability. There's a lot of mobility things to be in place that I need to work on. It was an emom for strength part and then the classic Open stuff afterwards that killed me finally.
Overhead squat.
Every minute on the minute, for 15 minutes
3min: 5 reps @ 50kg
3min: 4 reps @ 55kg
3min: 3 reps @ 60kg
3min: 2 reps @ 65kg
3min: 1 rep @ 70kg
This was a perfect way to get lots of reps done with increasing weights. Every minute on the minute, always 3 minutes with one reps scheme and then add weights and decrease the amount of reps. Started at 5 reps @ 50kg, and worked my way up 5kg after every 3min. Simultaneously I dropped one rep.
I probably haven't done ohs ever like this, and it started to feel on my shoulders. Squatting with this kind of light weights is no big deal for my legs but I had to struggle somewhat to get a nice form on my shoulders. I took this one from the rack but I'm afraid to drop it in my back so at 60kg and more I dropped the barbell on the floor and power cleaned it back to the safety rack after each set.
I performed this one with dignity. I'm very happy on the way I was able to do. And the weights were perfect for me, it would probably not have succeeded with heavier loading, and lighter one would have left too much in the tank.
Open 14.2. Result, 115 reps
Every 3 minutes for as long as possible complete the following:
From 0:00 - 03:00
2 rounds of
10 overhead squat, 42.5kg
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
From 3:00 - 06:00
2 rounds of
12 overhead squat, 42.5kg
12 chest-to-bar pull-ups
From 06:00 - 09:00
2 rounds of
14 overhead squat, 42.5kg
14 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Do you remember this one? I think it was Camille Leblanc-Bazinet and Talayna Fortunato that pulled it off in the live performance, head-to-head, Open 14.2. This was the first time I did this one, and it was a mental battle. Especially after that emom session I felt like I was wasted after the first round of 10's =)
My strategy was simple. Don't lose the barbell on overhead squats. Then go by feeling on the chest-to-bar's, don't rush it, definitely do not rush it. I got ohs unbroken on the both rounds in the first "amrap" in 3 minutes, same happened on the second amrap or what you call those. Anyways, the 2x12's went unbroken as well. The only time I dropped the bar was when there was 14 reps to be done. I got 9 at first, dropped it and finished the 5 remaining ones. That equalled to 58 overhead squats.
C2b's were not crushing me on the first set but the latter 10 reps were much more tougher already. I took them 6-4 on the first time domain. On the round of 12's I have no memory how it went, most likely the first one was 5-4-3, and the latter was a pathetic one, that's what I remember. It was maybe a 4, then 3 and then maybe singles.
I had to get my shit together after 6 minutes was full. I barely made it to the third time domain and had to rest my elbows to my knees before jumping on to the 14 overhead squats. After finishing those the c2b's were a nightmare. I think I made a double or two in the beginning, and then hit purely singles until the time cap of 9 minutes was full. Tough workout.
Thursday. Gymnastics, emom x 8min: strict hspu's. Back squat, 3 reps every 90 seconds, build up from 60kg till failure. Result, 2x140kg. Pair wod, 15min amrap of: 50 hr push-ups, 50 squats, 50 burpees, 50 lunges. Result, 2rds + 50 push-ups.
Yes, gimme squats! First some hspu action, then partnering up with Toni for a great back squat workout that took our legs to other dimensions, and finally we hit it for a 15min metcon together as a team. Good one as usual =)
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute, for 8 minutes
Strict handstand push-ups for 6 min (3-5 reps)
Kipping handstand push-ups for 2 min (6 rep)
These short emom sets are perfect on the road towards mastering some weaknesses. I feel like I have hspu's pretty well under control nowadays when kipping is allowed but strict ones are from another planet. Those are hard and I can't get a real momentum going on there. I've done 10 for max reps whereas 25 can be done when the entire body is utilised. That means more strength for shoulders and triceps would make the deal for strict ones too. These minutes were not for max reps. I just took couple of reps to get more familiar with strict versions. I believe it was 5-5-5-4-3-4. That was supposed to be it but I took 2 extra minutes just doing couple of kipping reps as well.
It was the perfect avocado ever, had to share this one with you guys =)
This is the same workout I did some time ago for the WinterWar qualification event number 3. That one was done with front squats though. It was such a great workout that I thought trying it out with back squats too. The weights start at light weight and go up moderately so the body gets warm pretty well. It was a triple after every 90 seconds. I did this one with my pal Toni. He started at 0:00, and I took my first set at 0:45. So someone was lifting a triple after every 45 seconds.
That time interval is great. In the beginning it's quite a long time and there's plenty of time to recover. And in the end it really hits big time in the last rounds / sets because you have to work so hard for those reps anyway.
Got to say we both had good results considering our own maxes. Toni smashed 120kg for a triple even though he hasn't been able to squat in a long time seriously because of some back issues. This was a victory for this guy. And 140kg for a double is no joke for me. Especially in a rally like this where time becomes a factor. We felt super happy on the results!
Pair wod. Result, 250 reps
15min amrap of:
50 hand release push-ups (alternating after 5 reps)
50 air squats (synchronized)
50 burpees (alternating after each rep)
50 lunges (synchronized)
Our legs were destroyed, my quads were screaming for help after those squats. It was surprisingly difficult for us to come up with an idea of a pair workout. We decided to leave the barbell off of this one so it was about push-ups / burpees and squats / lunges. Kind of like two different movements, yet modified to 4 different elements.
It was a 15min amrap of these 4 stations. We did squats and lunges synchronized, meaning we both did 50 reps at the same time. Push-ups were 5 for you, 5 for me style. And on the burpees we have found a way that is economical for Toni and me, we change the athlete after every rep. This way we get them done faster compared to if we did them for example 5 and 5 reps.
Turkey, avocado, spinach, tomatoes, Turkey and rice. Post-workout meal
Not necessarily a bad ass for lungs but legs were taking some hit on squats and lunges and then shoulder and arms in general were getting their share on the push-ups and burpees. It was definitely worth throwing down for it with my main man Toni.
Took a long session today of which big portion went to mobilizing my body. It really feels good sometimes to have that much time to maintain the body. First part was directly taken from the mainsite crossfit.com, Wednesday's wod.
Overhead complex.
7 sets of:
1 thruster
1 push press
1 push jerk
1 split jerk
Loads: 70, 72.5, 75, 77.5, 80, 82.5, 85kg
It was a funny coincident that I had thought about doing a complex of push press - push jerk - split jerk today. As I woke up today, there stood one pretty much the same workout at crossfit.com. Only difference was that it started with a thruster. Not a bad idea so I took it!
Got off with 70kg, and added 2.5kg per set. It was a rare moment to do as heavy thrusters as I did today. For some reason those are usually the classic 42.5kg / 95lbs in a metcon but almost never as a strength part of the training session.
The only set where I couldn't finish as planned was the last one. I couldn't nail the push jerk. Actually I didn't even try as the push press was so tight that I barely got it up. Push press seems easier for me than push jerk. Must be something to do with shoulder mobility. Or then not. It feels somehow tighter.
Metcon. Result, 15's + 12 thrusters
7min amrap of: 3-3, 6-6, 9-9... of:
Thruster, 42.5kg
T2b
This was a lot of fun. Thrusters are great for sure. Nasty but effective. Toes-to-bar made a good combo with them. It was a lot of breathing and burning in shoulders. That 7min time was perfect for this combination. I got the round of 15's done and then 12 thrusters on the round of 18's.
Tuesday. Hero workout Gator, 8rds of: 5 front squat (85kg), 26 ring push-ups. Time, 19.28.
I knew beforehand that this training day is gonna be a shorter one so I planned for one metcon and one metcon only. So it was supposed to be rather quick session. After checking out couple of hero workouts, I ended up choosing this one: Gator. Squats sounded good and ring push-ups was a great counter element.
Gator. Time, 19.28
8 rounds of:
5 front squat, 85kg (from ground)
26 ring push-ups
Had no idea how long this might take. I googled "crossfit Gator" and ended up at mainsite's workout, dating back to August 2011. After browsing those comments I reckoned it's gonna be finished somewhere between 20 and 30 minutes. I also thought those round times would start to get longer and longer because there was insane amount of ring push-ups. So needless to say it was a pleasant surprise I got this one sub 20min and that those rounds didn't collapse towards the end.
This is 185lbs rx'd which equals to 84kg, and I thought the barbell is supposed to be taken from the floor as it usually is unless otherwise told. That weight is okay for me, no problem. My traps are sore from yesterday's cleans, much more sore than normally. That's naturally because of the volume. Still, it felt good to get the bar from the floor. Those front squats felt good, and I got them unbroken. Had to push through somewhat but there was no doubt I would do them unbroken every round.
Mat Fraser
The amount of push-ups on the rings was intimidating at first. It was a reason why I hesitated to take this workout at all. I'm happy I did it. Went as deep as it's possible on the rings and managed to get a total os 208 reps in the books. Decided to go by feeling from the first round on. First round was maybe 16-10, next 2 rounds were completed in 3 sets, something like 10-8-8 or 10-9-7. Next 2-3 rounds were over in 4 sets, I remember them being 8-7-6-5.
For 4 rounds my times got slower each round as probably my rest periods took an extra second here and there, which totaled a little longer round. Then I realized I'm already mid-workout and started to speed it up a notch. From then on my rounds got faster every time. I'm very happy of being able to pace it up. Got some sort of mental boost of confidence and knocked the push-ups in 3 sets for the last rounds, about 11-9-6.
This was a good workout for sure! Mostly it put a lot of burden on upper body for me. Squats definitely felt but those were not the thing. It was absolutely the chest and shoulder work. Breathing was well under control all the time because I had to break down the sets on the rings.
Monday. Gymnastics, 3rds of: max effort c2b, max effort hspu. Strength, hang squat cleans (max 95kg). Emom x 12min: 1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean @ 90kg.
I had lots of plans for this training session. Had no need to rush at all, planned to take my quality time and work through a lot of things. After getting mobile I started the gymnastics part and was pretty much ready to leave after that. It was a big forearm burner =) But then I got my sh*t together and was able to pull off a great clean session also.
Gymnastics.
3 rounds of:
Max effort of chest-to-bar pull-ups (22, 16, 16 reps)
Max effort of handstand push-ups (25, 17, 16 reps)
I really like these gymnastics starts on training sessions to kick things off. Those have been emom style versions this far but now I decided to step my game up and try some max rep efforts as I wrote that I planned couple of days ago. This was way more taxing to do big sets of pull-ups and hspu's. My lats, forearms and triceps were burning and finally went numb after these sets =)
The name of the game was pretty much clear after the first set already. After second I was done and the third one was just brutal feeling. It took me about 12 minutes to complete this 3-rounder. Not that it was for time, definitely not, but I wanted to have some decency on the time frame. After this I went to warm up with an empty barbell and it felt difficult to hold on.
By the way, I ended up doing a PR on handstand push-ups (25 reps on the first attempt), which pleases me a lot! And actually it has to be a PR on those c2b's as well. That was not the definite max out version of those pull-ups. It was wearing a lot and I did those without stopping at any point. Had I stopped and tried to do singles one by one I could have knocked a little more. But that was mentally disturbing so I just took what I got "unbroken" and was satisfied with that.
After recovering enough and getting my forearms back in the game I started working towards heavier set of hang squat cleans. I built it up from light weights. Actually I did 3 hang power cleans + 3 hang squat cleans up to 60kg, then went to hang cleans only.
The most difficult thing in these sets seemed to be how to have my hook grip on the entire time. I had no issues getting under the bar quickly enough. I'm very happy about this fact. When I clean I catch the bar with open hand, a.k.a. not with hook grip. So once the bar comes down from front rack position I need to catch it mid-air and that seems to be a thing I need to work on. It's a prerequisite to being able to catch the bar with a proper hook grip so another rep is starting from the same position as the first one.
This was my original plan for today
Clean emom.
Every minute on the minute x 12 minutes
1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean @ 90kg
I also wanted to get the timer running and do some work with a good sweat. And this was the answer this time. 90kg power clean is not easy for me. That was much tougher on me than the hang clean. But it was definitely a great way to practice that. And all reps were similar, and that's the most important thing to me. It can not be a surprise how they look like. There needs to be consistency. It felt great to move that 90kg power clean, that's for sure.
Meathead.
Pendlay row 5x5 (60, 70, 80, 80, 70kg)
Tried also something I thought I'd never do. My training pal who does traditional gym work was talking this movement up a lot so I figured lets give it a shot. Took couple of sets and it really activated the entire back. Okay, maybe not my thing but it was worth trying =)
Sunday. Strength, back squat 7x5 (max 130kg). Emom x 20min, odd min: 2 mu, even min: 8 high box jump. Lots of mobility.
I dropped Pauliina at her friends in the morning and headed to the gym for some quality time on my own. Finally got some squats done with this body (okay, it's been a week or so) and felt great about it! After strength portion it was time to work on my weakness, muscle-ups. I've added volume a lot on these ones and it's paying off. Very glad about it.
Strength.
Back squat 7x5 (110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 125, 120kg)
Would you imagine I did deadlifts this week's Monday and today was the first day I was able to battle through back squats big time? Huh, but that only tells me I haven't done much deadlifting so my body hasn't used to the movement and protests this way. Got to step up my game on that one. How to still keep 2-3 squat sessions a week is a good question.
My plan was to hit 5x5 sets but in the course of the session I decided to add 2 more sets. Started at 110kg, then moved up 5kg after every set, and was able to build up to 130kg for a 5. That was quite tough so I dropped back to 125kg, and then 120kg for the last sets. Kind of like a pyramid hoax.
It felt tremendously good to squat again. These legs have to be strong in order to make everything else shine too. It all starts with the legs. No doubt about it.
Workout.
Every minute on the minute, for 20 minutes
Odd minutes: 2 ring muscle-ups
Even minutes: 8 high box jumps
This was a great way to work on ring muscle-ups with a higher heart rate. Usually I'm all relaxed when I'm doing those. Basically because it's been too taxing for me to do them when tired. Today was the first time I combined some other element with mu's. It needed to be an emom training anyway because a classic metcon would have been too much. Okay, I've done Nate sometime in the history with false grip mu's.
Recap
I had one miss on a set on the rings but other than that I was able to work through the reps in the time frame. I took all sets in singles, 1 rep on top of the minute and the other after 30 seconds. It turned out to be a good strategy. Had one miss about mid-workout so I took one penalty muscle-up post-wod.
High box jumps are a great way to work on hip explosiveness. I jumped up, and stepped down. These were meant exactly to work on hip power. No need to rush through or do them as fast as possible. It took me about 25-30 seconds to complete the reps. It started with just one bumper plate on top of the 61cm box, then round by round I added one more plate on top of the previous one until there were 5 total plates plus the box. Once all plates had been used, I went with that height for the rest of the time.
Mobility. I focused a lot of energy to this part. Close to an hour mobilizing my hips, legs, lats, traps and stretching out. Lacrosse ball was part of the routine naturally. It felt great to get joints loose and these muscle tissues released. Better than a massage.
Main focus today was supposed to be squats. Previous deadlift session still feels in my back so I had to drop them. Dammit. Instead, snatches were a lot of fun, and rowing made my legs burn anyway so no biggie I got what I deserved.
Holy quads, need to squat some more
Snatches.
Every minute on the minute, for a total of 15min
Squat snatch
3min: 5 reps @ 30kg
3min: 4 reps @ 35kg
3min: 3 reps @ 40kg
3min: 2 reps @ 45kg
3min: 1 rep @ 50kg
I needed to get my snatches done. Maybe technique wasn't right there (like it was sometimes hehe…) but it was great to have those squat snatches and this time I was pulling from the ground. Loads were light each time for sure. I just wanted to practice on pulling from the ground with rather lots of amounts of repetitions. My lower back started to remind itself at mid-workout and prevented me to squat after these guys.
Intervals.
10 rounds of:
250m row
60 second rest
It kind of blew my mind when I read an article of Julie Foucher rowing over 1 million kilometers last year. She had huge amount of rowing sessions which was on average about every other day. And as I follow crossfitmayhem - Rich Froning's site - it seems they also have row intervals on a steady basis. Actually this 10 rounder of 250m rowing appears there every now and then.
My times for each interval were as follows:
1st round: 47.5sec
2nd round: 48.7sec
3rd round: 48.5sec
4th round: 48.8sec
5th round: 48.7sec
6th round: 48.9sec
7th round: 49.0sec
8th round: 48.4sec
9th round: 48.6sec
10th round: 47.7sec
The first and last were done with a damper setting of about 9-10, the rest were at 8 which is pretty much what I always use. The "boat" moved a bit faster with a higher setting. It was around 1.34-1.39 all the time. Maybe an occasional 1.32 pull in some set. I basically tried to catch up every round with the previous round's result. It ended up being quite steady pacing all 10 rounds. Good interval training!
It was great to have a day off of work, and we went shopping for a bit. Spent the day in Jumbo and after chilling for a while we threw down for a workout. Clean and jerk was how I kicked it off and finished it with a new benchmark workout. Very good training day.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute, for 5 minutes
7 clean and jerk, 60kg
This was actually horrible. Lots of reps and not that much recovery. It brought Grace to my mind… Feeling was pretty much the same at some point. I haven't done this many reps as emom training and it really felt nasty. It's kinda hard to say where it felt the worst, it was more like a overall fatigue hit me big time.
For the first 3 rounds I went unbroken, and the last 2 rounds were 5-2 reps. This was a great way to add high-rep sets into classic clean and jerk strength training. It was more like muscle endurance type of stuff than strength based programming. You can have a look of the session below.
Clean and jerk emom
Rahoi. Result, 163 reps
12min amrap of:
12 box
6 thruster, 42.5kg
6 bar-facing-burpee
I noticed this one sometime ago and there was no doubt I would do it one day soon. I've just been waiting for the right moment. It looks easy on paper but you don't have to be the smartest guy in the world to realize it's gonna hurt. It's a hero wod for god's sake. The first part of my training session was so rough that for a minute I though that's gonna be enough for the day. After recovering for 5-10 minutes I started moving and decided to move with a steady pace and not rush through it.
Today my result ended up being 5 burpees short of 7 full rounds. The amount of reps were small for each movement so I had troubles figuring out how this would turn out. As I started working I went unbroken with the elements and kept a break before moving on to the next one. I thought this would benefit me in the long run. 12 minutes is rather long time if you're going all in from the very get-go.
Box jumps were probably the most fatiguing element of this benchmark. You can always swallow 6 more thrusters and burpees, even with them being bar-facing versions which are the worst in my opinion. Every good workout to say the least and the entire training session was intense!
Great day as my pal Toni came to train with me and Pauliina after work. Today my back was in okay condition so it was definitely time to squat. Pause squats this time, not heavy though. Those gymnastics emom are the best to get pumped up and a good way to hone your weaknesses.
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute for 12 min
Odd min: 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Even min: 10 pistol squats, alternating
I've been able to slid lots of pull-ups in my training volume through these emom sets "pre-workout". Today we did these together with Toni, he just had different movements but we worked together anyway. He did ring dips and box jumps. C2B's are a great element to work on in this part in my opinion. Getting stronger with the movement and especially pull-ups where chest hits the bar every time. These were kind of semi-big sets for me. I might try out how many c2b's I can link together in one set. Hmm… good idea.
Pistol squats are always tough. Note to self though: don't do them on a squat day. They took the best of my legs just before back squats. But anyway, these were a perfect movement to be practiced this style. Loved every rep of it. We did these for 12 minutes, that is 6 rounds of each element, totaling 60 reps for both movements.
Strength.
Pause squats 5x3 (across 100kg)
Not heavy this time. It was great to have that bar in my back rack for sure. Squats is something that should be done at least 3 times a week. Big muscles need to be worked on a lot. And it's only through squatting and deadlifts that you can get the best results on lower body.
Pair workout with Toni.
2 rounds of:
2:00 of squat clean, 50kg
0:30 rest
2:00 of ring dips
0:30 rest
2:00 of burpees
0:30 rest
"You go, I go" style
This was purely Toni's imagination. He came up with the time and rep scheme. And it was a good one. We didn't decide on the reps beforehand but agreed to do this "You go, I go" style. That means Toni started the squat cleans, dropped when he felt like it and it was my time to go right away. I had 5's in the squat clean all the way, in both rounds. Ring dips were mostly 6's in the first round and on the 2nd round they varied between 4-6 reps.
Burpees were the only one where he had a game plan because we could have knocked 2 minutes in a row individually but there would have not been any point as a pair wod. It would not have been that intense. So on the first round we did 5's, then high-fives and changed turns. On the second round we did those alternation after each rep, with a good speed and we actually got a little more reps compared to the first round.
My notes are quite blurry but my best guess is that I had about 50-60 cleans, 50 ring dips and actually about the same amount of burpees as well. This was a good end to the training session. I recovered quickly, it wasn't all in type of workout but a good breather anyway. Those rest periods gave us enough time to go full throttle in those work periods.
