Tuesday. 100 DUs. Back squat 3x5 (100kg), weighted lunges 3x5 with alternating legs (60kg), overhead squats 3x8 (20kg). Wod consisting of back squats and ring dips, time 5.51. Weighted ring dips 3x5 (max 15kg), weighted pull-ups3x5 (max 15kg). 100 DUs to cool down.
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| Overhead squats |
Quite a day! Woke up at six o’clock in the morning and headed to the gym with Toni and another fresh crossfitter, Joni. My agenda was to go for back squats, not to the max anyway. In addition I decided to take weighted lunges and learn some technique for overhead squats. After that I took a metcon consisting of back squats and ring dips. Finally I felt there was still some juice left so I put on the belt and started loading some weights on it, and began doing ring dips and pull-ups. For starters and cooling down I took 100 reps of double unders in each end of the training session.
Strength. Back squats 3x5 (100+100+100kg). Weighted lunges 5x5 with alternating legs (60+60+60kg). Then I also took overhead squats 3x8 (20+20+20kg).
I wanted to give pressure for my legs by concentrating on quantity this time. I piled it up to 100kg for back squats and took 3 sets of 5 reps. If this was a regular heavy squatting day, I would’ve put more plates on the bar. Today’s agenda was a bit different. I don’t want to get stuck on the same routines so I’m trying to find various types of exercises, which still increase my strength level. I felt confident doing those back squats today. After traditional squatting, I took lunges with a barbell in my back. I took five reps with each leg, alternating after each step. Every set included 5 lunges with both legs. I had 60kg in the bar. Not too heavy, could’ve carried more weights though.
This was a good and different type of leg workout. At the end, I wanted to have a look how my overhead squats are at the moment. I can tell you there is remarkable difference in my overhead squats compared to summer time. Then, it was just impossible to squat by holding a bar overhead and squat simultaneously. Of course I was able to hold the bar overhead but when I tried to go down, my upper body naturally leaned forward and caused the bar to drop in front of me. After doing mobility movements inspired by Kelly Starlett, my mobility has improved greatly and nowadays I can do those squats. I’m not sure my technique is perfect but it’s manageable. Better start doing them consistently. Then, in the future you will witness me doing overhead squats with proper weights as well as snatches.
Metcon. Back squats and ring dips. Time 5.51.
- 4 rounds of:
- 20 back squats (50kg)
- 10 ring dips
Metcon. My metcon part was also about squats. Four rounds of back squats, 20 reps with 50kg, and 10 ring dips. Total of 80 squats and 40 ring dips. All sets went unbroken. My strategy was to do sets unbroken so I didn’t rush between transitions because that might have forced to have a break in between. My legs were burning in the second round of the workout. On the third and fourth rounds I stopped for maybe two seconds to give a short break for my hamstrings. I kept the bar all the time at my back, just wanted to take a short breath during the squats, then continued to the end. Ring dips went also unbroken each time.
Strength for dips and pull-ups. Ring dips 3x5 (10+10+15kg) and pull-ups 3x5 (10+10+15kg). I was still hungry for training so decided to get the belt and and put some weights hanging from it and do some ring dips and pull-ups. I mixed these two movements. First 5 ring dips with 10kg, then 5 pull-ups with same kilos. A break, another round, a break, increased it to 15kg and repeated the same protocol. I just love those rings, nothing else to say about them, they are awesome! The pull-ups were more difficult for me than ring dips. Next time I might add more kilos to ring dips, I suppose 20kg will come up in a set of 5 reps. However, I think I managed to do 3 or 4 pull-ups with 15kg in the last set. I really don’t consider my pull-ups to be my strength. My max amount of pull-ups is 20reps currently, I see a definite development target there.
Toni’s workouts. Strength for front squats (max 3 x 70kg) and back squats (max 2 x 100kg). Metcon was
- 3 rounds of:
- 15 burpees
- 30 sit-ups
- 20 squats
- 20 kettlebell (16kg)
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| Toni going for 100kg back squat |
Toni will comment his metcon himself, we were doing our metcons simultaneously so it’s hard to say how he did. At least he had hard times after the workout so I bet this was a rough one.
Finally I was able to keep my elbows up (Thanks for help Tommi). I had few sets with 60-70 kg and my goal was only to improve my form. I nailed it and now its perfect :).
ReplyDeleteWOD was once again very basic metco (Time was 11.05). Maybe biggest challenge was to do sit ups fast enough. I really need to work those muscles under my bit fat belly. Burbees have always been one of my favorites and with small improvements in technique I'm able to do them much faster than before.
Tomorrow: Double Grace? :)
Yes, I agree with your front squat form. It was from another planet compared to previous attempts. Now I think you got the point why and how to keep your elbows pointed in the right direction so that your form stays in an upright position and you can carry the bar at your shoulders, not purely on your hands and forearms. And then assist the movement with tight abdominals. Now you just need to keep on doing mobility workouts so that you get more flexibility in your wrists, shoulder area and upper body in general. For a while, I'm sure your wrists will not like this movement but the pain will go away in rather short period of time.
ReplyDeleteTomorrow is going be historical, we will try something we've never done before. Let's see how it works out :) We'll have to keep on modifying the workouts to as much versatility as possible to achieve the best possible end results.
By the way Toni, what the hell are you grunting in that ring dip video? :D
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I was swinging in those last ring dips, should have probably made more work with my core to keep it steady?
That was the " angry elf" counting reps :-)
ReplyDelete