Clean (PR) + wod (video)

Friday. Strength: Clean 4x5 (max 65 PR). Wod: Clean + HSPU + DU. Time 6.58

Day of success! First of all, personal record broken in strength training and I beat my big bro in wod, c’mon! As I have said earlier, I consider him a beast, his strength level is way ahead of mine so I’m very happy for today’s win =) Even though that I’m supposed to compete against myself, it feels good to win your training partner. I read a cf blog from former NFL lineman John Welbourne, who commented he was blessed to have trained with some monsters during his career.

He wrote: “strength is contagious; if you start training with strong people, you will get stronger through osmosis. Most people in the CF community like to train alone, as CrossFit is a solemn sport. Just the individual, a clock and maybe a barbell. Most people train in garage by themselves. I watch at my own gym daily, before the workout the community is extremely friendly and supportive, but once someone screams “3…2…1…” everyone enters their pain cave and looks for their power animal to help them. When you lift heavy weights you need training partners. Partners to coach, spot and scream encouragement or remind you when you are being a bitch. Workout partners are a great barometer for your level of commitment.” This is so true, with good and strong training partners you achieve better results. Thanks for the support bro”

Strength. Sets of 5 repetitions, 50+50+55+60+65kg (2reps). The last one was my personal record (PR). I’m also getting better technique, I’m actually very happy to my short history and development in cleans. Back straight, bouncing it well, shoulders do their part, the explosiveness should be faster but then again, I can get under the bar to make it able to lift the weights. Today the limit ended up in 65 kilos. I tried 70kg twice but both times I wasn’t fast enough when trying to get below the bar. See the videos and be the judge. When adding kilos naturally technique begins to collapse. And I have to squat more when it gets heavier. I’m gonna stick with this 50-60kg level for a while, get it going in 5-rep sets until results can be seen, then add more kilos again.

Wod. Clean + HSPU + DU as follows. Time 6.58, Sami’s time 7.12.

• 4 hspu
• 12 hang clean
• 8 hspu
• 8 hang clean
• 12 hspu
• 4 hang clean
• 50 DU
• 12 hspu
• 4 hang clean
• 8 hspu
• 8 hang clean
• 4 hspu
• 12 hang clean

Wow, this wod was nice! Handstand push-ups really get to the core of shoulder muscles and due to the high reps in cleans they also hit a man quite thoroughly. In between those two rounds of HSPU / cleans 50 double unders get you to breathe like a maniac. Actually I was able to do all reps unbroken despite 50 DUs and first set of 12 HSPUs. The sight must have been a comic one in that 12 HSPU set, I managed to do only 2 reps, then I collapsed a few times because shoulders were too tired and I couldn’t keep myself in line. Once I began to fall sideways etc. Somehow, I got myself together and managed to do the 6 remaining of them unbroken and transferred to double-unders. After that the rest of the wod seemed easier, all sets unbroken. My bro was ahead of me before DUs but I was clearly quicker with jump rope and got the lead when moving to 12 HSPUs. The only thing I had in mine was to finish it before my competitor. He came with outstanding pace from behind but didn’t succeed in passing me. Final time difference 14 seconds. Good games Sipa!

Tomorrow I'm going to head to western Finland as we have to floorball preseason games over there. I'm going to play the latter one so this weekend is probably not going to be that much cf oriented. I've done my share for this week, one wod on Monday, two wods on Tuesday, two training on Wednesday, one on Thursday and today as well. There has been quite a number of workouts after last week's rest period and I'm very happy to the workouts. A lot of "cardio" type of training, strength workouts have been included as well and skills training was major part of the week as well. Very good combination in my opinion.