Saturday 6.6: Push press, Long emom, Sled, Handstand + Rope

Saturday. AM: Push press 5-5-5-3-3-3 (max 80kg). Every 5:00, for 35min, perform 20 cal row, 30 du, 10 pull-ups, 20m sled push (110kg). Accessory, sled pull standing (50kg). Skills, handstand practice. PM: Shoveling for couple of hours. Skills, rope climbs.

Saturday was a busy day! In the morning I drove Pauliina and her friends around the city because there was another bachelorette's party taking place. Once I came back I ate second breakfast and went to the gym to workout for about 2 hours. Then it was time to get away from home because the entourage was about land at our house. So I packed my stuff and went overnight to the in-laws' place. There was a lot of shoveling waiting for me and Kari. The rainwater drainage had to be planted properly so it took couple of hours. Lots of eating took place of course and finally Champions League Final came on TV late in the evening so it was obviously gonna be a soccer night.

Strength.

• Push press 5-5-5-3-3-3 (70, 72, 75, 78, 79, 80kg)

Couple of sets push press. These turned out to be heavy. Not the biggest loads in the history of mankind but for me they were heavy. Especially the 5x75, and those triples pretty much all the way. I was still happy on making them happen. I've had some nagging pain in my elbows lately so being able to do these was great.

Saturday recap

Workout.

• Every 5:00, for 35 minutes, perform the following:
• 20 cal row
• 30 double under
• 10 pull-up
• 20 meter sled push, 110kg (+ sled)

Got this from my bro. It was initially 20 cal on an assault bike but I've never even seen one live so that was not gonna happen =) Subbed it to rowing and went for 20 calories anyway. Used damper setting at 8 in the beginning and raised it to 9 at some point. Had some misses on the double unders but in general those were better than last time I jumped around.

Pull-ups for 10 reps is not bad, right. When doing this in a sprint style interval work, they got surprisingly tough. Went unbroken in all sets though. That was not the issue but they started to fatigue my body too.

Sled was a newcomer in a metcon. The times I have used sled, it's been some sort of strength or accessory work at the end of a workout. But mixing it in to a metcon was a cool element! That really ate my legs in pretty much each round, except for the maybe first 2 ones. These rounds took me about 2:30 to finish so it was about 1:1 work:recovery ratio. Tough wod, and got tougher each round.

Sled.

• Sled pulls, standing

This was something new cool stuff I saw someone do just one day earlier. It was the first time doing this. The goal was to increase pulling power and hoping to transfer that finally to cleans, snatches, pull-ups, muscle-ups etc. You'll see from the video how it worked out. Right side seemed a lot stronger than the left one, that's for sure.

Skills.

• Handstand

Took some handstand practice, and on my first attempts there was one guy giving some coaching tips to me. We started talking and it turned out back in the days he had been on the national gymnastics team in Finland so he it's quite obvious he had phenomenal body control skills. He taught me on handstand so I hope patience and good practice will take me further on this skill.

Outdoors.

• Shoveling for hours
• Rope climbs

In the afternoon we worked our asses off in Klaukkala. This was a fun outdoor workout, let's call it real life crossfit. Shovel was swinging a lot with Kari, and we finally achieved what we were aiming for. Finished the work on Sunday morning. In the evening I had time to attack the rope climbs shortly before locking my eyes on the Juventus - FC Barcelona match on TV.

Here is one rope climb. I've tried different styles of foot locks on the rope but they seem more challenging than this one I'm using currently.

Rope climb

Friday 5.6: Squats, "Benny"

Friday. Back squat 3x5 (across, 130kg). "Benny", 3x5min amrap with 3min rest between sets: 2-2, 4-4, 6-6… of power snatch (40kg), box.

Friday pulls were supposed to be on the program. It's quite often to combine squats and deadlifts towards the end of the week. Squats were on the table but my core or somewhere under the left ribs are feeling some sort of pressure when pulling heavy or sneezing / coughing. So I left deads alone and concentrated on a workout I named Benny after my beloved furry friend Benny who went to dogs' heaven exactly 2 years ago on this date.

Strength.

• Back squat 5-5-5 (130kg)

Yes, it felt good. Decided to do couple of 5's and it was meant to do 4x10 reps on deadlifts afterwards. I built up to this weight by doing sets at 5x60, 3x90, 3x110, 2x120kg. Those weights felt very confident, and they should be. I took my time warming up before touching the barbell.

Had to do these reps with a good pause on the top position. That's what I usually do when having a heavier barbell on my back or front rack. It was all good for each set. The last rep was kind of a fluke though. I lost control on the way down a bit but was able to save that in the bottom.

Squats

Benny. Result, 66 reps each round (round of 10's + 6 snatch)

• 3x5min amrap
• 3 min rest between sets
• 2-2, 4-4, 6-6… of:
• Power snatch, 40kg
• Box jump

This turned out to be a good mental battle. I had to place the box a little further down the hall but not too far anyway. Ideally it would have been placed a bit closer. Don't know if that would have changed anything at the end of the day. First reps were easy because volume was low. Six snatches are something I can push through unbroken but it got my breathing heavier, and adding box jumps to this combo made legs on fire.

At round of 8's I broke it in to 4-4, and the next round was 5-5. On the round of 12's I got 6 snatches done before hitting the time cap. On the last amrap I messed up with the rep scheme so I'm not quite sure how much work was completed in the 5 minutes. After round of 8's I started to think whether I skipped the 6's so I did it or re-did it. In the end I stopped after 10 reps had been done on both snatches and box jumps. Boxes were unbroken each time.

That means to say it was 6 reps shy of what I got on the two first amraps, or then 6 more reps, go figure. But one thing I know and that is this was painful in the end. And my dog was a bad ass, and I miss him.

Other.

• Deadlifts
• Kettlebell swings, 28kg
• Handstand push-ups
• Mobility

I took some deadlifts after squats but merely up to 130kg before I felt the pressure on the left side of my torso under the ribcage. That doesn't feel right so I have avoided things that bring second thoughts. In the end I took some 15 rep sets of kb swings at a 28kg bell and 10 hspu's between swings. Plus lots of mobility and foam roll stuff plus some rowing to flush the legs.

Thursday 4.6: Clean and jerk, Snatch, Burpee box, T2b

Thursday. Clean and jerk 3 sets of 1+3 @ 80kg. Jerk dips 5x3 (max 110kg). Emom x 15min, 1st min: 12 db snatch (25kg), 2nd min: 10 burpee box, 3rd min: 12 t2b.

This was a good day! My personal training wasn't at its best with the barbell, felt heavy with loads that should not feel like so. But the big news was I got a friend at the gym with me. We've tried to match timetables together so that Jouni would have the chance to hit it with me at the gym. Then Jasper also came there a little later. That was freaking awesome!

Strength.

• Clean and jerk, 3 sets of 1+3 @ 80kg

This is great exercise for building up consistency on clean and jerk. One clean, then 3 split jerks. I took the first two sets with squat clean, then the last one with a power clean. My body was still a bit tired as I wrote yesterday so having a semi-heavy barbell on my hands didn't feel like it's flying up.

I took the first set as touch'n'go at the front rack position, never resting the bar there between jerks. Below you'll see the second and third set. And as you see, they are far from perfect. Foot work wasn't there. Too short lunges which means the jerk is not balanced that well. This weight should feel much lighter than it was today.

Accessory.

• Jerk dips 5x3 (90, 100, 110, 110, 110kg

This was kinda accessory work for the jerk. Took the bar from rack, placed it on the front rack position, and took a triple dip. Getting used to heavier weights than my max load for jerk. Having that weight on my front shoulders more frequently should make it easier to jerk weights over 90kg up in the air. Plus I get to work on my hip work at the same time.

Metcon.

• Every minute on the minute x 15min:
• 1st min, 12 dumbbell snatch, 25kg (6/6 reps)
• 2nd min, 10 burpee box jump
• 3rd min, 12 toes-to-bar

This was a great one! At first I thought how is it going to feel but I reckoned it's probably going to get real pretty soon. And it did. First round okay, then it got heavier. All these three elements were nasty in their own way.

Snatches got to the breathing, and also grip strength was on test at some point of the workout. I put the weight at 25kg per dumbbell, and took the reps from hang position. Six reps with right hand, then six reps with left hand. It probably took something like 25 seconds.

Burpee box jumps can be nothing but a delight. Those obviously put the heart rate up in the sky in a blink of an eye. All these movements had to be unbroken of course. Otherwise the point of the workout would have been missed quite badly. Doing these burpee boxes took something like 32-33 seconds per minute. At first I thought about 12 reps but those 2 extra reps would have took about 40 seconds and made the recovery tougher for the next movement which was t2b.

Got these also done ub but in the last two rounds they got tough. I was not going to break them down though, that was a mental decision. Jasper was talking me up during the wod and that helped tremendously.

Wednesday 3.6: Jerk, C2b, Box, Ghd's

Wednesday. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 4 s2o (60kg), 8 c2b, 12 box, 16 ghd. Row 4km.

This morning I woke up at a regular time. After being in the shower I realized I'm going to work for evening so there was some sleep that could have taken place but once I was already awake, it was time to cheer up and head to the gym. This was much earlier than normally when I do morning workouts and it definitely felt in my body. It was sore as hell.

Metcon. Result, 273 reps

• 15min amrap of:
• 4 shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg
• 8 chest-to-bar pull-up
• 12 box jump
• 16 ghd sit-up

It really was difficult to get this body moving. Don't know why it is as sore as it is. Legs were fine but upper body feels smashed. Back, chest and arms. Okay, there's been heavy cleans, then thrusters, burpees, lots of squats, more cleans and ring dips in the past two days. I can also feel it in my legs but they worked as planned anyway.

I had planned on jerking a bar at 70 kilos but 60kg worked much better. And it felt heavy too =) C2b's were the part which I had some thoughts about whether I'm able to go unbroken or not. Eight reps ain't much but in a workout it might start feeling like there was a weight vest on me. This time I got them done pretty well, and couple more rounds would have probably gone ub too.

Box jumps were good, same with the ghd's. Got them unbroken as well. I tried to bring my hands to the pads my sliding them closer to my body. I reckoned Jonne Koski was doing this style in the Meridian Regionals last weekend. I've brought my hands straight up which is maybe not the most efficient and less consuming way to do it. This movement is something I considering being pretty good at so it didn't bring any problems.

Metcon recap

Row.

• Row for 4 kilometer
• Easy pace

This was just for flushing legs, and get fluids running in my body. Pace was slow, I basically turned the monitor up so I would not see it. Just rowed for some time for recovery purposes. Pace was somewhere over 2:00 per 500 meters. Mobility and stretching took place after rowing.

Tuesday 2.6: Back squat, Clean, Dips, Handstand

Tuesday. Strength, back squat 7x3 (max 135kg). Metcon, 15-10-5 power clean (70kg), 30-20-10 ring dips. Time, 7.53. Handstand. Mobility.

On Tuesday I had plenty of time to get some fitness worked up. Yesterday's front squats changed to back squats. Built up to heavy sets of squatting, and felt proud of that. Metcon was one of my brother's creations, very good version of Elizabeth. In the end I took couple of sets handstand training, and mobility work plus flushed legs by rowing for a while.

Strength.

• Back squat triples (110, 120, 125, 130, 133, 135kg, and two reps @ 137kg)

This was a lot of fun! Squatting feels good at the moment. It gets heavy at around 130kg but it comes up pretty solidly. Depending on the day, sometimes lighter, sometimes heavier. Today my max set for a triple was 135 kilos. Last set was at 137kg. It turned out to be a double as the second rep was heavy as a ton of iron was on my back. There was not going to be a triple this time. I was still very happy on completing these squats.

Squat recap

Metcon. Time, 7.53

• 15-10-5 clean, 70kg
• 30-20-10 ring dips

Benchmark workout Elizabeth is 21-15-9 of the same movements with the only difference being the weight. It's 60kg. Rep scheme was naturally different as there were 30 semi-heavy cleans and 60 ring dips. Cleans were much more pleasant compared to ring dips. Dips are not in my wheelhouse so it was a good choice to do them in a workout like this. Those are high rep sets to me.

Cleans were no issue, did them in power cleans. It was something like 5-5-3-2 in the beginning, then on the second round it was something like 4's, 3's, and 2's. Similar probably on the last round, last 3 reps were singles. But the thing was that when I dropped the barbell, I didn't go and walk around but took couple of breaths and picked the bar up again.

It was the dips that burned me. Or more like my triceps. I always do them strict. Don't even know how to use momentum on these. I did these mostly in sets of 5 reps in the first round. Second round was 4's and 3's, and last one was just trying to do them as quickly as possible in small sets. Good wod for sure!

Cool down.

• Row 1.000m
• Handstand
• Mobility

After getting my breath back again I sat on the rower and kept a slow pace, at around 2:00 for one kilometer, main focus was to just get some fluids running in my body. Slow heart rate movement. Then couple of sets handstand and finally mobility. I've found it smart to sit in overhead squat's bottom position with a stick or empty barbell overhead. Sitting in the hole for 20-30 seconds at a time must improve mobility in hips, back and shoulders.

Monday 1.6: Clean, Thruster, Burpee, Front squat

Monday. Strength, clean doubles (up to 105kg). Metcon, 21-15-9 of: thruster (40kg), burpee. Time, 5.48. Front squat 4x4 (across 100kg).

Back to the grind! Monday was about getting familiar with this thing called crossfit again. It was a rough weekend in Copenhagen and I loved every second of it. The guys had really put up a show, and we had some very good quality time together. I wanted to get some cleans under my belt and then hit a metcon that would allow me to blow some steam out of the system. Didn't really have time for the squats so I took 'em light in just a couple of minutes.

Strength.

• Clean doubles (60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100, 105, 105kg)

Damned it was great to do cleans! These were squat cleans all the way. They felt solid up to 100kg. There were 2 sets at 105 kilos. The first rep of both sets was good but the second was a little off on both of them. That was somehow distracting as I'd like to have every rep look the same. Consistency consistency. Anyway, I felt very good after getting just a little sleep last night, and being tired all day.

Metcon. Time, 5.48

• 21-15-9 of:
• Thruster, 40kg
• Burpee

On our way back to Finland I planned this week's training together with my bro, and came up with this kind of stuff. On the airplane this felt like a good idea. And there were some sick plans of doing it twice after a short rest period in between. My shoulders got tired after the first set of thrusters =)

Combine thrusters and burpees is torture. I still remember 14.5 from last year's Crossfit Open. And those were bar-facing burpees to make it suck even more. This was luckily much shorter version of that but still it got under my skin. Very good short and intense workout!

#nextlevel with superfood berries

Squats.

• Front squat 4x4 (across 100kg)

Got time for just a couple of minutes so I piled 60kg, then 90kg on the bar, took couple of reps there, and moved on to 100kg and started doing 4's with just a short break between sets. This was light weight but I wanted to get some squats done.

Weekend: Dream come true

Weekend. Crossfit Regionals!!!

As we are getting married with the love of my life this summer, Toni and my bro decided to throw a curveball and arrange a surprise trip to Copenhagen to watch the Crossfit Meridian Regionals! That was a dream come true that I never - when being awake - thought would come true.

The boys took me from work place in the morning and got as wearing Rogue team shirts. The main goal was to have fun throughout the weekend. Hit some workouts and enjoy the Regionals. Jonne Koski and Mikko Aronpää were competing on the men's side of things and Saara Laaksonen & Emilia Leppänen were representing the women. It turned out Jonne dominated the entire weekend and is traveling to Carson, California in the summer to challenge Mat Fraser and the other bog dogs! Congrats to Jonne for the victory, it was spectacular to watch him smash the workouts.

OHS.

• Overhead squat triples (40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75kg)

On Friday we did overhead squats in turns, it was triples starting from 40kg, and adding 5kg. One guy at a time, taking turns, not looking at the clock, no extra wait between sets. At first we did some muscle-up training with my bro, both ring and bar mu's. The affiliate "Crossfit Trykkeri" was sick. Big open space with a good atmosphere, and the athletes really looked like they have done crossfit for some time. Both guys and gals were doing it for real.

I got to climb up to 75kg for a double, I dropped the bar in front on the third rep. This was somehow more taxing on my shoulders than it normally is. It was a bit heavy already on the set of 60kg. I got down pretty well but it just fell sore on the shoulders. Legs were fine though. After the drop I decided not to play around with the bar because we had a grueling workout ahead of us.

Team wod.

• In team of 3, complete
• Row 1.500 in sets of 250m, and perform amrap of chest-to-bar pull-ups
• Row 1.500 in sets of 250m, and perform amrap of squat clean, 70kg
• Row 1.500 in sets of 250m, and perform amrap of wall balls, 9kg
• Row 1.500 in sets of 250m, and perform amrap of shoulder-to-overhead, 70kg
• Result, 121 C2B, 45 squat clean, 150 wall ball, 70 S2O

We wrote this together on the airplane or our way to Denmark. The idea was that someone was rowing all the time, 250 meters at a time, and goal was 1.500m. That means 2x250m for each. At the same time it was an amrap - as many reps as possible - of 4 different movements. Starting at c2b's. After hitting 1.500m of row, the movement changed to squat cleans, then at 3.000m it changed to wb's and finally at 4.500m it was basically jerks for the last leg of 1.500m.

This way we got a change to have everyone of us working all the time. That rowing element was a good one so there didn't come too much rest. I got 10 reps to start with the c2b's, then it was 6's and 5's till the end. Squat cleans were singles. On the wb's we decided to do them in 5's in order to minimize the rest periods. This was the easiest movement for me. Jerks in the end were tough but we all got them done properly even though there was a lot of work done prior to these. They got better towards the end. I'm very happy for this portion of the workout!

Thursday 28.5: Mu's, Bear Complex, Sled, Farmer's walk

Thursday. Skills, ring mu's. Complex with a partner, 10min amrap of: 1 rounds of Bear Complex @ 60kg. Result, 30 rounds. Sled push, every 2:00, perform 20m distance (up to 185kg). Farmer's walk 4x20m (up to 2x80kg).

Training with Toni. That's quality time. My main man. We started this thing called crossfit together 3 years ago and trained for the first year or so at the same gym on a daily basis. Then he changed the place to a crossfit affiliate which was definitely a good move for him. The development took a leap further. Every now and then we get a change to hit it together. The daily crossfit speculation still continues every day =) Today I got him to visit my gym for more like a strongman type session.

Skills.

• Ring muscle-ups (total 12 reps)

I took couple of sets muscle-ups on the rings and actually on the pull-up bar as well. These were okay today. Not the best I've had but still good. It was triples and doubles to get a total of 12 reps. Had no specific plan for these, just wanted to get some reps on and get some feedback from Toni as he has a coach's eye. Toni did some emom clean and jerk work at the same time.

Recap of the day

Complex.

• 1 round of Bear Complex (power clean + front squat + jerk + back squat + jerk)
• You go, I go, for 10 minutes @ 60kg

This type of complexes are very good for muscle endurance. You get lots of reps, and get fatigued in the process. Very valuable tool to improve the general physical preparedness, GPP. We had couple of options for barbell complex, there were some DT and Hammer type intervals on the table as well. Finally it turned out to be Bear Complex singles in a "you go, I go" style, meaning one guy does one set, drops the bar and hands the turn to the other guy.

Bar was 60 kilos so it wasn't that heavy. We anticipated it might turn heavier in the process. I felt good for the entire 10 minutes. That was a positive surprise that I could have continued forever. Heavier bar might have worked well too. Got to say though that this kind of complexes are awesome when done with a partner. Haven't done bear complex in a while. Originally this would mean doing multiple sets without dropping the bar in between. That is 7 reps without letting the barbell fall to the ground.

Partner workout

Sled.

• Every 2:00, perform 20m sled push
• Weights 80, 95, 110, 120, 135, 150, 160, 175, 185kg

This was sick. We did 20 meter "sprints" every 2 minutes. Toni pushed it down the turf, and I pushed it right back. Have no idea how much the sled weighs but we started with about 80kg on the sled as plates. From then on we kept adding 10-15kg to the load. This was supposed to be for death. Let's build it up so that at some point you can't push the sled anymore. We ended up having 185kg (plus the sled) for load and there decided to stop after that set.

It would have been the last set for me most likely. Not that there would been any room for more plates either. Maybe 10-15kg more would have been able to be there. Toni pushed this like a pro even though it was kind of a new element. This really burned the legs and it felt like someone hit the quads with a baseball bat.

Farmer's walk.

• 4 x 20m (60, 60, 60, 80kg per hand)

We were done after the sled. But once we didn't have to rush anywhere so we played around with the farmer's walk for couple of rounds. Nothing serious but the load was pretty good for us anyway. Really had to focus for these walks. There was 2x60kg for most of the sets, and the heaviest was 2x80kg load for 20 meters.

Farmer's walk

Wednesday 27.5: Snatch, Clean and jerk, Ghd, Sled pull

Wednesday. Every 45sec: perform 1 squat snatch for 20min. Emom x 10min: 2 c&j (70-82kg). Metcon, 8 rds of: 5 c&j (60kg), 15 ghd's. Time, 12.28. Sled pull, seated.

Had lots of time to be spent at the gym so I took advantage of this rare moment big time. Started off with snatches, working on that technique with emom type training. Then hit it about the same way for clean and jerks. That was awesome too. Metcon consisted of c&j's too which is something I should have there more often. The last part was inspired by last year's Crossfit Games where they had similar strongman type movement, combined with deficit hspu's.

Snatch.

• Every 45 seconds: perform 1 squat snatch (40-60kg)

This was a great way to get more reps under my belt on snatches. And the focus was on getting below parallel. I have traditionally been quite hasty on getting the barbell off the ground so I tried to get it slower from the ground. One more thing I was putting effort was not to bounce from the bottom but stay there for a while in the receiving position.

My mobility isn't where I want it to be on the snatch so this is important stuff for me. The jumps on weights were 40-45-50-52-55-57-60kg. It was mostly something like 3 minutes per weight. I thought I was doing work for about 20 minutes but then in the end it was something like 22-23 minutes.

Snatch recap

Clean and jerk.

• Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes
• 2 clean and jerks
• 1-2min: 70kg
• 3-4min: 75kg
• 5-6min: 77kg
• 7-8min: 80kg
• 9-10min: 82kg

This was somehow freaking awesome. Clean and jerks have been missing lately. At least that's my first gut feeling. So I did doubles every minute. And these were not just normal clean and jerks. The rule was not to stop at the front rack position. I was supposed to jerk the barbell overhead with one continuous movement. And I got them done as planned. This was great news because I have not done c&j's this way over 70kg. At least not over 75kg, that's guaranteed.

So going all the way to 82 kilos was big news for me. I did the first sets unbroken but then starting at 75kg it was quick singles. There is not a single thing I would look back and thing I would have liked to do any other way. This left me with a smile on my face.

Clean and jerk emom

Metcon. Time, 12.28

• 8 rounds of:
• 5 clean and jerk, 60kg
• 15 ghd sit-ups

I had decided to do c&j's at 60 kilos for a metcon for a couplet but the pair had not been precisely written down. There were couple of options, and ghd's were one of them from the very beginning. So it was 12 min amrap of 5 c&j's and 15 ghd's. At 12 minutes my last set of ghd sit-ups were ongoing so I decided to finish them, and the clock finally stood at 12.28 after performing the 120th ghd. On the video below you'll only see the clean and jerks, sorry for not capturing the ghd's on the clip (plus not editing those parts I wasn't performing on the platform).

Jerks felt good and doing just 5 reps at a time was something I was able to do unbroken each round. Had there been something closer to 10 reps it would have brought issues. Ghd's were unbroken too, and the round times were quite solid, it was about 90 seconds per round. Not big differences between rounds.

Metcon

Ropes.

• Sled pull, seated, for 4x20m

At this stage I was pretty much done but after walking around the gym for a while, I saw the rope laying on the floor and it reminded me of one of the coaches talking good things about pulling the sled with a rope, seating on the ground. The load was light this time, I just wanted to get my hands on this thing for the first time. I had 25kg plate for half of the time, and 25+15kg's for the latter part.

Tuesday 26.5: Front squat, Mu's, Pistols, Box

Tuesday. Front squat emom x 9min (up to 130kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 4 bar mu's, 12 pistols, 24 box. Time, 12.28.

Time to put legs to work. It feels like an eternity since squatting for real the last time. Okay, it was last week's Thursday so there is a seed of truth in there. It's unforgivable not to squat for a week. However, there were some issues with this body so I'll forgive myself this time. I had written hero workout Klepto as one option and another one was a row / lunges kind of combo to kill legs but it turned out to be different kind of lower body smash in the end.

Squats.

• Every minute on the minute for 9 minutes:
• 1-3min: 3 front squat @ 100kg
• 4-6min: 2 front squat @ 110kg
• 7min: 1 front squat @ 120kg
• 8min: 1 front squat @ 125kg
• 9min: 1 front squat @ 130kg

It felt good to do front squats after doing much more back squats for strength lately. Front squats have been there mostly in the form of squat cleans or then in metcons with lighter weights. So hitting it heavier was awesome. I knew there isn't plenty of time to be spent at the gym so I had to do it emom style if I wanted to have time for a good metcon.

For the first weight I did touch'n'go style not stopping on the top. At 110kg I took one extra breath before going back down for the second rep. After having done doubles it was time for singles. Originally I thought about doing them at 120 kilos but then again it felt good so I decided to add some weight. Couple of singles up to 130kg.

Metcon. Time, 12.28

• 5 rounds of:
• 4 bar muscle-ups
• 12 pistol squats, alternating legs (6/6)
• 24 box jumps

During the second round I started doubting the reasoning behind this one =) My legs were killing me big time! It was a good change of stimulus, hitting legs in 2/3 elements and then some muscle-ups between them. Haven't been doing pistol squats in a while so they felt more challenging, maybe because of the lack of them.

Box jumps didn't make it any easier. Boxes are okay for me and I like them a lot. But the number of them was rather high and you combine it with pistol squats, and my legs were jello during the workout. And afterwards at home they felt like someone had hammered them for an hour. It's odd how quickly they got sore. I'm waiting eagerly how they feel like tomorrow. Muscle-ups were the rest period if I had to name one. Unbroken each round.

Monday 25.5: Clean, T2b, Burpee

Monday. Workout, 10 x 60, 70, 80kg squat clean. Time, 5.40. Metcon, 10 rds of: 1 power clean (90kg), 10 t2b, 8 burpee. Time, 15.15.

Yesterday was a tough day as I didn't get a chance to hit a workout. I was anxious how this day would turn out like. The night was not pleasant to say the least and once I woke up in the morning, my neck was still out of order. Pauliina gave me some magic pill to get going, and it helped. After work day I jumped on my car and was destined to hit a good workout.

Ladder. Time, 5.40

• Squat cleans
• 10 x 60, 70, 80kg

It was kind of a mystery how cleans would feel like when having the neck a bit sore. It was getting better throughout the day, and by the time I tapped 3-2-1-go I had zero pain anymore. This was a short ladder for time. Just complete 10 reps of each weight, then add 10 kilos on the barbell. And the point was to do them as squat cleans.

I took the 60's in 6-4. Could have done 'em unbroken but I thought that might have a fatal influence later on the workout. Okay, I probably should have pushed it some more. The set of 70's was a triple to start with, and then maybe singles. Last set was purely singles.

The barbell wasn't that heavy at any time, even with the 80kg bar. Nor that it should be. This is far away from my max loads so it should have been a conditioning workout. It was mostly my lower back that was on fire in this one. Breathing was rather high too of course but that back was the one that prevented me doing faster. Very good workout in my opinion!

Metcon. Time, 15.15

• 10 rounds of:
• 1 power clean, 90kg
• 10 toes-to-bar
• 8 burpee

Recovered my back for a good time after the cleans, and decided not to touch a barbell in the metcon. Originally I had kb swings, push jerks and ghd's planned for a 15min amrap. That may have been to rough on the neck so it turned out to be a combination of heavy power clean, t2b's and burpees. And felt good all the way.

The power cleans felt veery good every single time I touched the bar. That wasn't light. Especially in a workout. My max power clean is 103kg so this ought to be quite heavy. I took my time every round with this single lift. Wanted it to look good and consistent through all 10 rounds.

Toes-to-bar's were unbroken for a number of rounds. Somewhere probably at around 5 rounds I started breaking it in two sets. Either 6-4 or 7-3. Just to release the tension of the hip flexors for a while. Then drop down right away after t2b's and recover after that before heading to the bar. I reckoned the clean was the toughest movement for strength so it's smarter to have some recovery between burpees and clean, and otherwise just keep moving.

Sunday 24.5: Recovery

Sunday. Recovery

My neck is killing me. The weird thing is I didn't even do anything to deserve it. Just walked around the gym and I heard my neck crack. It's been very unpleasant since then. There was no chance I was going to train today. Just went for a 5km walk in the evening to flush my legs.

This guy is really making things happen in the East Regionals!

Saturday 23.5: Clean emom, Row, Push-ups

Saturday. Clean emom x 10min: 5 hang power clean (60kg). Metcon, 5 rnft of: 500m row, 20 push-ups. PM: Recovery walk and stair running.

This day is a special one. Pauliina's friends arrived in the morning and picked up my future wife for her bachelorette's party =) That looked like a lot of fun right out the gate. That left me a lot of time to improve my fitness. So after driving this entourage to downtown Helsinki I went to my gym OP Center and hit a workout. Something awkward happened yesterday during the day and it has been feeling a bit funny in my core, on the left side. I have no words to describe it. Anyway, that led me to taking this day easier. There was also a kettlebell throwdown going on at the gym so I went to check it out. That looked really brutal. In the evening I went outdoors to enjoy the nature.

Emom.

• Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes
• 5 hang power clean, 60kg

Yesterday evening was bad. As I tightened my core it hurt a lot on the left side. So I was on the verge of stepping back from training today. But I found myself at the gym and after activating this body it was all good and didn't feel that bad. Still, I didn't risk by loading up the bar to a heavy version. Instead, it was only 60 kilos and I took it as an emom workout to break a good sweat. Cleans brought no issues to my torso and it was actually a good barbell work for technique purposes. I focused on every single lift and tried to make the contact point as high on my thighs as possible. At the end of the cleans I tweaked my neck or something, now core is better but my neck hurts. What a screwup.

Workout.

• 5 rounds for time of:
• 500m row
• 20 unbroken push-ups

I took 50 push-ups after the cleans, then headed to see the kettlebell action upstairs. I've never witnessed this kind of events and had no idea what to expect. There was one organizer introducing me to this sport and told it's usually about snatches and/or clean and jerks of some kind. Some variance is still in play but the elements are familiar.

The event that I went to look was a 10 minute amrap of push jerks with 2 x 32kg (2 pood) bells. Okay, sounds brutal but let's add a twist. You are not allowed to drop the kb's to the ground at any point. Once you bring 'em down, your game is over. That's just simply mean and brutal =) Lots of mental game going on here. The best result was 70 reps but they told me some guy had jerked 110 reps in the past. That's a lot of jerking if you ask me!

Afterwards I went back down for a workout. I didn't time it but that didn't slow me down anyway, at least not much. I took 500 meter rows, and then 20 unbroken push-ups between rowing. Rowing was somewhere sub 1:50 pace. Push-ups felt great. Those usually are not in my wheelhouse but I felt very good on those this time.

Glimpse from the kb comp

Revovery.

• 6km walk
• 10 rds of stairs up and down

The weather was freaking sick. It was sunny and the sky was clear blue. For a Finn that is unbelievable. We don't have that much sun during the year so we tend to enjoy every single day when we have a summery weather =) I watched the Crossfit Regionals at the balcony for an hour or two, ate and recovered, then decided to hit it outdoors. It was mostly a fast pace walk for couple of kilometers. Once I got to almost Töölönlahti, I looked back and noticed the sky in the horizon was looming dark. It was obvious it's gonna rain big time soon. It changes rapidly.

So it took only minutes to get soaking wet but that's no biggie, I had sports wear anyway and I saw there was a stairway in the middle of the woods. That looked tempting and it turned out to a workout of 10 rounds of up and down the stairs. It was a total of 85 stairs up and 85 back down. It took about 9 minutes of constant moving. Strategy was not to stop nor slow down at any point. And the point was to step on every stair so it was small steps running on the ball of the foot. Good way to get blood flowing a bit faster and get some burn in the legs.

Friday 22.5: Skills, Deadlift, Metcon

Friday. Skills, ring mu's 3x3, bar mu's 3x6. Strength, deadlift 5-5-5-5-5 (across, 160kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 6 front squat (60kg), 9 burpee, 12 ghd, 250m row. Time, 14.24.

Yeah baby, it was a good training session to say the least. Classic stuff, skills, strength and conditioning. Good combination of work. In addition there was some real life crossfit being done as one person asked me to push her car at the gas station because the car wouldn't start anymore. Another case occurred as the kettlebell competition team asked me to assist them in moving one of the weightlifting platforms to another spot as they have a throwdown tomorrow at the gym. Now I know those platforms are heavy!

Skills.

• Ring muscle-ups 3-3-3
• Bar muscle-ups 6-6-6

More muscle-ups to get more efficient on them. These were good sets, and no doubt of hitting them. The last bar mu set was kinda heavy though. My calluses had not been taken care in a couple of days so that backfired right on my face. I anticipated some problems with the deadlifts and that was the case finally. Got some tears so I need to take care of these hands tonight.

Friday pulls.

• Deadlift 5-5-5-5-5 (across, 160kg)

Classic deadlift session for a Friday. It was all 5's. I built up by having a 70kg bar, then 110kg and finally 140 kilos before going up to the working weight. Sets were identical across the board, at 160kg. The weight itself wasn't too bad. I believe my max set for 5 reps has been 180kg, that's the most I've tried. But my palms and fingers are always taking the most of the damage, as I've written before.

It once again felt like my fingers will get cut off. I had to place the bar more on the fingers because otherwise my calluses would have gotten ripped off. I was still very happy on completing all these 5 sets with this weight without any bigger issues.

Metcon. Time, 14.24

• 5 rounds of:
• 6 front squat (60kg)
• 9 burpee
• 12 ghd sit-ups
• 250m row

That was pretty much all I wanted to have a grip on. Grip was shot so I decided to take elements where I could keep a good pace on throughout the workout and not having to hang from anywhere. Otherwise toes-to-bar would have been in place. Reps and movements were good for the purpose I was looking for. Engine.

There was a little walking around at the gym to get from one place to another. That was my recovery time and it was enough to keep a steady pace. Round times were about 2:48, 2:54, 3:03, 3:00, and 2:37 so that means to say it was pretty similar in all rounds and on the last one I was able to speed it up a bit to make it the fastest round.

All elements were decent, none of them were gross. Front squats were surprisingly burning on the legs, and maybe the combo of them and burpees was the toughest part of this workout but still manageable. On my walk to the ghd there was plenty of time to get the breathing down a bit so I could hop on it right away. Rowing was somewhere at 1.46-1.47 on average.

Thursday 21.5: Squat, Clean, C2b

Thursday. Back squat 3-3-3-3-3 (across, 130kg). Metcon, 10min amrap of: 10 c2b, 1-2-3… squat clean (80kg). Result, 86 reps.

We had some wedding planning to do after work day so it went late in the evening before I got my things together and headed to the gym. It was squat time and the metcon was a nice twisted combo of c2b's and cleans.

Strength.

• Back squat 3-3-3-3-3 (across, 130kg)

Unfortunately I don't have time to go through the emotions over this training session that much. These were tough but I'm happy on completing each set at 130kg for triples. Take a look at the squats.

Metcon. Result, 86 reps (6 rounds + 5 c2b)

• 10 min amrap of:
• 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 1-2-3-4… ladder of squat clean, 80kg

It was 10 chest-to-bar's every single round and then squat cleans in a ladder style method. Starting from single lift, then a double, triple on the third round and so on. For as long as possible in 10 minutes. I got 6 full rounds and 5 c2b's on the 7th round. That means 65 c2b and 21 cleans.