Saturday 6.10: Skills + Press + Filthy Fifty

Saturday. Double unders skills training. Shoulder press 4x3 (max 50kg), push press 4x3 (max 65kg), bench press 5x3 (max 75kg). Filthy Fifty, time 20.32.

What a day! During the weekend there's not such a rush so we had some more time with Toni to do a lot of work and develop ourselves as crossfitters. We took double under training for starters after some warm-up for about 15min. Then strength training for different presses: shoulder, push and bench. Finally I took a metcon that's making a heart burst into flames: Filthy Fifty. The name says it, it is nasty! It took a while to go through the whole program but it was definitely worth it.

See the development, it's remarkable!

DU skills. There has been huge development since the first double under I did maybe two months ago. Today I realized the last bit of double unders. This was the second time we took 15 minutes set of purely double under training together. This was also the second time I got a break through :) It really helps when you see the other guy doing doubles next to you. Then you try to adapt some of it to your moves. I also had some images of Gymnasticswod's Carl Paoli in my head as he was talking about doing single unders with a "power jump", i.e. higher jump. Then as you are confident with that, put more effort to the rope, increase the speed and you find out you are doing double unders in a row while keeping your legs straight. Toni also made progress and was able to go for three doubles in a row, good job.  In the video you'll see the steps I've gone through this far. More videos are in my Youtube channel, videos of Toni as well.

• Double under, single under, double under, single under
• Doubles in a row but moving around the gym
• Doubles in a row, staying on the spot but knees bending in each jump
• Doubles the way they should be done. In a row, staying in the spot and legs straight

Strength. Shoulder press 4x3 (45+50+50+50kg), push press 4x3 (50+55+60+65kg), bench press 5x3 (50+55+60+70+75kg). Toni added 5 kilos to the bench press (80kg) at the end, otherwise we did same weights. These weights are my standing current records so the bar was moving well. It's awkward that the first sets of shoulder presses were more difficult than the last sets. Maybe it shows I need some more warm-up before hitting the kilos. I really enjoyed all these press movements. Now I'm able to do these weights with sets of 3 reps. Toni obviously had something more in the storage but decided wisely to stay with these kilos, focus on the technique and do proper sets, not max out by reaching for that 1 RM.

Push press, 65kg

Filthy Fifty. Time 20.32. Ten movements, 50 reps each, total of 500 reps. Move to next station only after finishing all 50 reps on the movement.

• Box jump
• Jumping pull-ups
• Kettlebell (16kg)
• Lunges
• Knees-to-elbows
• Push press (20kg bar)
• Back extensions
• Wall ball (15kg plate)
• Burpees
• Double unders

On June 28th, I did the same workout. My time in June was 24.32 so there was improvement of 4 minutes... That time I did jumping pull-ups with a 20cm box beneath my legs, today I removed it. Kettlebell was the same, 16kg, which is the heaviest at the gym. Should have probably brought my own one, the 20kg kb. I wasn't able to do practically any knees-to-elbows in June, had never practiced them. Today I was disciplined and went all the way with K2Es. Wall ball is the modification where I use a 15kg plate and do thrusters with that because of lack of wall balls at the gym.

The bench on which I do box jumps is about 40cm, it wasn't that bad at all. We are about to receive a Rogue Fitness official box (60cm) in Mid-October at the gym. It was out of stock when we ordered it so it takes a while. Jumping pull-ups, still not bad. As I looked at the video, I wasn't satisfied with all the reps. The kettlebell was also not that heavy and they didn't get me that bad. However, the KB's handle was so small that my fingers went almost numb as I had to squeeze all my fingers in there. Lunges, still ok, I noticed my breathing getting heavier. Knees-to-elbows was the first movement where I had to think how to push myself through the bad feelings. I went them in sets of 10 and finally sets of 5 because my knees just wouldn't obey me and stayed too low.

The beginning of Filthy Fifty

The push press went in sets of 25+15+10. It felt it's flying up, still I didn't want to attempt do them unbroken or in two sets because I think it would've been a bad decision because there were more movements still ahead: back extensions, wall balls, burpees and double unders. I had that burning feeling in shoulders so I figured it is smarter to do them in smaller sets.

Back extensions were also in similar sets: 25+15+10. Wall ball was disgusting. That 15kg plate I was moving up to full extension and down to deep squat caught my breath big time. I mostly took sets of 10 reps, the beginning was 20, then tens and finally fives. Then, the most difficult part. After 400 reps at this stage, facing 50 burpees is something beyond comprehension. The first movements went on nicely but approximately a bit before the middle of the workout the problems began and movements went in broken sets. The burpees were anyway clearly the toughest. I took 5x10 reps. At 30, I genuinely felt I'm going to pass out, the feeling was surreal. I always want to push through at those moments but this time I wasn't sure if it's ok. I sprayed some water at my face and took the last sets. Then the feeling vanished and I moved to the last movement, double unders. Sets of 10+10+10+18+2. Time 20.32. See the last reps and comments below.

Final wrap of the Filthy Fifty

Thanks Toni for encouraging and calling me names at some points ;) It really helped and made me push harder on the movements. I was happy I was able to do all those movements, especially knees-to-elbows, with which I had some problems last time so I didn't do them practically at all. This time all the movements were "pure". Now I'm feeling awesome! The day consisted of skills + strength + 20min metcon. The schedule for the rest of the evening: food, recovery, food, mobility and stretching, food, sleep.