I travelled to Stockholm, Sweden, to see my girlfriend, enjoying a few days here with her and coming back to Finland on Monday. Today is a rest day and tomorrow we are getting back to serious training.
After HC Triplet on Saturday 17th November I took an easier and lighter period, I skipped metcons for one week, took only strength and skills training to let my body get a grip. Next metcon was the week after on 24th as we did Sevenish with Toni. It turned out to be a smart decision to let concentrate in strength and skills as I have PR'd bench, pull-ups, shoulder press and deadlift after that.
This period included more handstand and hspu. I want to master them better in the future skills-wise so I'm continuing to put effort in those. Snatch is another key area. My pull-ups jumped forward greatly during November and they are no issue to me anymore, I have proven to myself in metcons that I can complete a number of them in a row but still I'm struggling with chest-to-bar pull-ups so I'll pay attention to training them as well.
17.11 HC Triplet, 3 workouts
18.11 Game day
19.11 Pull-ups and handstand, skills
20.11 Shoulder press, push press (PR), bench press + pull-up clinic
21.11 Back squat, hspu + floorball
22.11 Jogging, push-ups
23.11 Front squat, clean, snatch, ohs
24.11 Sevenish
25.11 Bench press (PR), snatch
26.11 Back squat, metcon, pull-up (PR) + floorball
27.11 Shoulder press (PR), metcon
28.11 Dedlift (PR), metcon
A couple of videos of a Finnish lifter, he's a bad ass
Wednesday. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1 (max PR 165kg), metcon of bench press, ring dips and burpees. Time 7.30.
Yesterday I took a nap after work as I really felt my body needed a break. I had no floorball in the evening so I had the possibility to take it easy and recover. I ate tons of food, slept and chilled. This was the recipe for success today. Both I and Toni PR'd our deadlift maxes big time. And after strength workout I took a metcon which was rough on the upper body. This day was good and hard.
Toni, 130kg
Strength. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1 (130, 140, 150, PR160kg, PR 165kg). What happened, I'm still asking myself? 165kg, you must be kidding me. For warmup I took sets of 60, 90 and 120kg and then started hitting plates on the barbell. I thought 140kg would be tough but once it came up easily I knew instantly I'm gonna try new numbers today. I decided to take 10kg steps up, 150kg and then skipping my old record of 155 and going straight to new PR 160kg. I took a steady three-rep set so natural step was to add bets and go for 165kg. That was a struggle but I nailed it, what a feeling! These weights are over double my body weight so I can't be nothing more than super happy =)
Going for 160kg, PR
Metcon. Time 7.30, bench press, ring dips and burpees.
4 rounds of:
7 bench press (60kg)
7 ring dips
7 burpees
Total of 28 bench press, ring dips and burpees in 7.30. All these three movements took their share of my upper body strength. There was no "rest" for chest and shoulders. Doing ring dips after bench press was rough and even the burpees after those two felt heavy. First round was unbroken. I'm not sure if I did bench unbroken in the second round or not but third and fourth round went 3+2+2 as ring dips ate my juice little by little. Ring dips went unbroken in the first round, 5+2 on the second round and smaller pieces in the last two rounds. Burpees were naturally unbroken because there were so few of them but they made those other two movements more difficult. This was a hard training session, at least my upper body got its share of the work load. I haven't done many workouts where I'm moving rather heavy weights in a metcon so this was a good variety. We discussed with Toni that we must take these more often in a similar way as in the "Sevenish" last Saturday.
Toni's workouts. Deadlift 3-3-3-3-1-1 (110, 120, 130, 140, PR 145kg, PR 150kg). Wow, this guy also PR'd his old max with 10kg. His previous max (140kg) came up easily so it was obvious he's gonna take heavier weights up in that workout. Toni went straight to 150kg, failed to lift it so he put 145kg on the bar, took it up once and then succeeded to take also 150kg. Very good job man! I'm wondering how come you've been stuck with that 140kg for quite a while because you made it look easy today.
Guy looked ehxausted, what were your feelings? We did this workout pretty much identically, I used 20kg kb instead of 1pood. In September I didn't have the double under skills in good form, I did them in double-single-double-single mode.
Tuesday. Shoulder press 5 sets (max PR 62.5kg), metcon of handstand hold and double unders, for quality.
My body was still asleep when arriving at the gym, this time alone, Toni will do his training in the evening. I was very happy to hit new records with shoulder press even with a tired body. I haven't done double unders lately so I included a metcon with DUs and handstand moves. This metcon was not for time but for quality with minimum rest.
Strength. Shoulder press 5-5-2-1-f (50, 55, 60, PR 62.5kg, 65 failed). Another record with presses, these have gone well lately! I believe this was the fifth or sixth time in November to hit PRs with presses, that's scary… Shoulder press has improved 7.5kg, push press 7.5kg and bench press 10kg in one month. Today I took 5-rep sets with 50 and 55kg, tried the same with 60kg but managed only 2 reps. Decided to go further with singles, got a new PR with 62.5kg and 65kg was halfway there but didn't get that through :)
Shoulder press, 62.5kg PR
Metcon. Static handstand hold, handstand push-ups, double unders for quality.
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
5 handstand push-ups
50 double unders
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
30sec handstand hold
50 double unders
Total of 200 double unders and hanstand holds as well as few hspu. I was thinking about doing 5 handstand push-ups (my favorites!) each round but reality came into play. Damned they were tough today after shoulder press. Doing double unders also hit my shoulders big time so I did mostly handstand holds against a wall. I wasn't sure how DUs are gonna rock but they rocked solidly! I didn't stumble even once, I only had to take some breaks as my shoulders were going numb, haha. It was awesome to see the skills have not vanished.
Monday. Back squats 5x3 (max 120kg), metcon of back squats and pull-ups, time 10.43, 73 pull-ups.
Alarm clock had its moment at 6.00, I woke up and ate breakfast, then headed to the gym with Toni to go for back squats and back squat + pull-up oriented metcon. My quads were still sore from front squats and thrusters. Toni took bench presses as strength training and then five different Tabata workouts.
Tabata rowing in process
Strength. Back squats 5x3 (100, 110, 115, 120, f 125kg). Nowadays I know I can reach 120kg every time I go for it. 125kg seems to be a tough one, today I tried it once but didn't get it up. Sets of 100, 110, 115 and 120kg succeeded. My legs and joints were not that flexible this time, somehow they were stiff from the very beginning. Even though I put effort on my warm-up and used more time in opening my legs than normally. Anyways, 120kg was the max of Monday squats.
Metcon. Time 10.43. Compare to 21st August. Squats with 60kg, my pull-up reps for each round are in brackets.
18 back squats
Max pull-ups (PR 25 reps)
15 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
12 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
9 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
6 back squats
Max pull-ups (12 reps)
50m walking lunges with 20kg bar overhead
Total of 60 back squats with 60kg and 73 pull-ups. Not bad, my pull-ups have improved greatly. I still remember the feelings from that August workout and this was very much similar. All rounds of back squats went "unbroken" but in the second and third rounds I had to take a 2 second pause to shake my legs before continuing further. That 60kg is about 50% of my max load. This workout is not only for time but also for pull-up reps. Last time I got 48 reps, this time 25 more... That's progress, I'd say. The first round of pull-ups witnessed my new PR, 25 reps. On the second round I finished 12 reps and decided to hold on to that number throughout the workout.
50m walking lunges in the end after having done back squat strength training and having done 60 squats in this particular workout really burnt my legs, big time. Pressure in the shoulders and upper back area were considerable because of the pull-ups and the overhead position. I did this one in 20m + 20m + 10m sets. For some reason I like this workout a lot and I will keep on doing this one in the future as well. Try it out and you'll see what I mean =)
Total of 34 dips, 87 sit-ups, 72 hspu, 850m row, 118 double unders. Result for dips was 2reps, 9 sit-ups, 4 hspu, 100m row, 5 double unders. I would say the first round of Toni's double unders were probably the best I've seen from this fellow. It seemed he was like a pro doing his basic double under training. Toni's handstand push-ups were modified to keeping the legs on the stall bars. The biggest thing was that he also made a personal record in bench press, single press of 95kg, nice! Didn't get that on video but here's the 2x90kg
Name of the game: bench press and snatch technique. I haven't done metcons basically at all this week. Only yesterday's "Sevenish"had my heart beating fiercely. This programming was intentional because of two reasons. First of all, I wanted to give my body an easier week after HC Triplet and secondly, my throat was a bit sore so I didn't want to risk health. I still managed to get a good week of work through strength exercises, as well as working for skills and technical issues with light weights. Tomorrow I'm gonna get back on track with metcons, you'll see…
1k row
Strength. Bench press 5-5-5-2-1 (60, 70, 80, PR 85, 85kg). Yeah baby! Previous record of 80kg was a two rep record 1st November and three rep set 20th November. Today I took it up five times, c'mon! As I put the plates on the barbell I simply knew it's gonna come up, and it did. I definitely wanted to pile up more even though I was alone at the gym. Luckily the bench press station has these safety bars installed because I didn't get that third rep up :) I took two reps with 85kg, took one minute rest and then another single with 85kg. I was extremely happy to the results! Every time when I have rowed good numbers in the warm-up I've done records in strength workouts. This time was no exception, my 1k row was timed 3.22. All the bench press videos from the five sets are available in my Youtube channel.
85kg, 2 reps, PR
Technique. Power snatch and squat snatch. I really worked on my technique today and tried to get it going. When I do my thing with an empty barbell, it all seems to fall into pieces. When I look at it from the video, I still see the problems of bringing the bar up too far away from my body and when I do squat snatches my knees tend to lean too far ahead of my ankles in the final position of that "overhead squat". Even with these flaws I like the way my squat snatches look like compared to where I started from. Still, I'd like to be able to add weights, it's pretty pathetic to lift only 40kg snatching. Where will that take a man in the Open 2013? Nowhere. Better keep on training that technique and having the guts to squat when snatching. I will go after 50kg soon.
Squat snatches
Toni had a rest day today. Smart man, tomorrow I bet he has that energy boost and he will break his bench PR =)
Saturday. Workout inspired by "The Seven", seven movements, five rounds. Time 26.00
Saturday morning, tough workout, result happy and tired. Toni was there with me and we pushed through this heavy workout. No separate strength workout today as the metcon included deadlifts and thrusters with heavier weights already and handstand push-ups as well.
Metcon. Time 26.00. Toni did 4 rounds in 31.27.
5 rounds of
7 handstand push-ups
7 thrusters (50kg)
7 knees-to-elbows
7 deadlifts (120kg)
7 burpees
7 kettlebell swings, 1 pood
7 pull-ups
Deadlift
This was a tough one. It was inspired by the workout called "Seven". It wasn't rx'd. The original consists of 60kg thrusters and 2 pood kb swings and lasts naturally 7 rounds. Because of the huge number of handstand push-ups I decided to use foam roll as my assistance so I didn't lower my head all the way to the floor. Toni hasn't performed HSPU's yet so he took advantage of stall bars, he laid his feet on the bars and did semi handstand push-ups.
I had no rush from the very beginning, concentrating in doing the movements unbroken and catching my breath. Everything but deadlifts and thrusters went unbroken. Actually the handstand push-ups with the help of foam roll was too easy. The two movements I was afraid of - hspu & thrusters - were not the most difficult. It was definitely the deadlift, it was the most demanding part of the workout with plates worth of 120kg in the barbell. For the first round of thrusters I took the bar to my chest when lowering it from the upright position and then front squatting with the bar. That wasn't smart so from the second round on I started to do them as real thrusters, flexing my knees when bringin the bar down to my chest and keeping the motion continous up and down. The last two rounds I had to do 5+2 reps, it was such a tough job to go unbroken.
Thruster
Knees-to-elbows usually feels quite light, at least with a small amount of reps. But then, deadlift... Huh, Total of 35 reps during the workout, nice! First round unbroken. The following 4 rounds 5+2 or 4+3 depending on the round. It came up well but it was heavy. It's good that I had this workout because I haven't had deadlifts lately. It usually tears skin off my palms but today's tapes saved my hands.
Burpees I took with easy pace. Kettlebell swings were way too easy, almost a rest period because we don't have heavier kettlebell at the gym. We were thinking about doing swings with two 1 pood kettlebells but didn't want to risk swinging the kb to the knee cap and take an injury =) Pull-ups went unbroken each time, that seems to be the trend nowadays.
Burpee
All in all, this workout was physically demanding. Doing high rep thrusters and deadlifts with heavier weights wasn't that easy. It took quite a while - about hald an hour - so stamina was definitely on test as well. I could have put my body work even harder and shorten the breaks between movements but I thought it's gonna be a nightmare because of the length of it. I'm satisfied with how I was able to partition this workout. It really sucked the juice out of me and I felt great after the workout. We would have gone for the total seven rounds for sure, it was just a matter of schedules. We had to go to work at 9.00 so we were in a rush from the very beginning =)
Toni went to the gym already in the morning, I had the possibility in the evening. Toni did something extraordinary, he improved his record in cleans with 7.5kg up to 82.5kg! C'mon mister, that's great, the leap is huge! Tell us more how did it go up there? I was determined to do front squats today but got inspired by Toni and did cleans as well =) In the end I took technique training for snatch and overhead squats. My metcon free week is over and tomorrow I'm gonna make my heart beat to the beat of a drum.
I took several sets for warm-up until I got to three digit numbers and until I felt my legs were open and joints were loose in the correct sense. 100 and 105 kg weren't that difficult. Adding 110kg to the table was another thing. I took 2 reps once, the third one stayed to the bottom. Second set of 110kg I took it up once and felt after the second rep I had given my everything so I didn't try the third rep. I decided to stay with the same weights and took 110kg for the third time, this time it was a single rep.
My cleans went great with 60kg so I decided to ad 7.5kg. That came up rather easy as well so I went to 72.5kg. It was a tough one, I felt after first rep that's too heavy for several reps. I still wanted to go to my tied record of 75kg to lift it up. I took it up with determination and was ready for today's strength training.
For some reason I still felt I wasn't able to perform at my best level today. That's is somehow awesome because I reached my tops for both movements (front squat PR is 112.5kg and clean is 75kg) even though I didn't feel like I could give everything I have. And training by myself was different compared to doing it with Toni. There's the boost I really enjoy training with other athletes.
After playing with the bar and taking some random snatches and OHS I took six sets of overhead squats starting from the ground, just with the barbell, 20kg, intentionally not adding any weights, purely concentrating in technical issues. Yep, my snatch is ok when I do it as power snatch and with light weights. I feel I have it in control. However, when adding weights I should bent my knees more and go lower. This far I've tried to do them pretty much without squatting at all. My overhead squat position feels difficult, how to keep good form, go deep enough and point those knees out when squatting. I've been working on it and I know that would be the key to go heavier weights with snatches. Lifting heavy weights with only power snatch is challenging. I should definitely go lower and even squat snatch to lift heavier barbells.
Tomorrow I'm gonna meet Toni in the morning to train hard. It's not gonna be an easy workout.
Thursday. Jogging, squats, abs, push-ups. Active recovery.
This day was more like active recovery. I skipped morning training and had floorball training in the evening. However, my neck is a bit stiff so I decided not to put on my gear and try stop the shots of my team mates. I went jogging for little less than half an hour and came back to do squats, abs and push-ups.
5 rounds of:
20 squats
15 push-ups
First set was squats and regular push-ups. This time I really concentrated in my form with the push-ups so that my back wouldn't arch at all. I think I managed it well.
5 rounds of
20 abs:
10 push-ups, narrow stance
Second set, abs and push-ups. I took clearly narrower stance because I wanted to feel it in my triceps more.
Wednesday. Back squats 4-4-4-1 (max 125kg), 4 x max hspu.
I'm still taking it easy this week. In the morning I took only back squats and handstand push-ups. Toni joined the training session and concentrated in front squats and also took a metcon of cleans and double unders. I had floorball in the evening as well.
Back squats. 4-4-4-1 (100, 110, 120, 125kg). I reached my max weights which pleased me a lot. Even though it was not the purpose of the workout it still feels good. The main point was to keep body activated with squats and go deep with rather heavy weights. As I was able to squat properly I decided to put more plates on the barbell. I was able to go for four reps with 120kg, that felt very good. Adding 5kg and reaching my current PR in back squats, 125kg, brought some difficulties. I took single rep, second one failed. Two minutes rest, another attempt of 125kg, I was determined to do two reps. Damned, it was a fail, no reps. Still, a good feeling as all four reps with 120kg with good squat depth were completed, adrenaline was flowing and also got that single rep with 125kg with good form.
Handstand push-ups. 4 x max set of hspu (5, 4, 4, 4 reps). I had decided to do handstand push-ups today as well for strength training too. Four sets of max reps. I've been doing handstand push-ups without any bumpers, plates or anything else where to lower my head. For quite a long time I used to have a foam roll between my hands below my head. As I removed it some weeks ago I'm lowering my head all the way to the floor and then bounce back with the help of shoulders and triceps. By removing foam roll the movement becomes exponentially more difficult and is very demanding indeed. I'm very happy I finally moved to do hspu's without any extra cushions. First set was 5 reps and the following three rounds were 4 reps each. After this I also took some attempts of kipping hspu's and tried to make my body understand how kipping should be done when going for handstand push-ups. It would definitely ease the movement greatly.
Toni's workouts. Front squats 3-3-3-3-3-1 (60, 70, 75, 80, 85, PR 90kg) and a metcon, result 169 reps.
Every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 12 minutes
3 cleans, 50kg
Remaining of the minute double unders
Result of the workout is the total number of double unders
First of all, Toni did a new personal record of front squats. His previous one was 85kg and today he lifted triples up to those weights. Then he still added plates and took a single 90 up, great job Toni! A metcon followed after strength training. I did this workout 28th October and this inspired Toni to do the workout as well. I might take this some day again, now that I can do double unders well, I recall having my breath running extremely wild! And so was to case with Toni as well. Toni's result 169 double unders.
Press day, and a good one! In all three strength moves I tied my current record or went beyond it. My throat aches a bit so I decided to skip metcons for a couple of days and focus on strength. It's not that badly hurt anyway, doesn't prevent me from training. This proved to be smart decision and I headed to the gym with Toni for heavy presses. After doing a lot of pressing we drove to Pirkkola for Toni having the possibility to learn kipping pull-ups.
Push press 77.5kg
Strength. Presses
Shoulder press 4-4-2-2 (50, 55, 60, 60kg)
Push press 3-3-2-1 (65, 70, 75, PR 77.5kg)
Bench press 4-4-4-3 (60, 70, 75, 80kg)
Before this day my record for shoulder press was 60kg, push press 75kg and bench 80kg. It was all going up well and I was quite proud of myself. It's been only ten days (10.11) since my previous records for these shoulder oriented strength exercises, the improvements back then were 5kg each and now I was able to go for even higher weights. My bench press record also dates to the early November when I did 80kg twice. Today it came up three reps and the fourth was inches away from clean rep but Toni assisted me in the last moment, might not have come up without him, don't know. Anyway, it was a very good press day.
Toni also tied his PR in push press, he went up to 55 for shoulder press and 77.5kg for push press and so very close to 80kg. Shoulder press was a bit sticky but once he got his legs in the play and changed to push press, things started to happen. The plan was to do fours for shoulder press and threes for push press. His sets look slightly bizarre this time. For some reason 75kg came up only once but once he took a 2 min break he shot the bar up three times, then added load to 77.5kg and did two reps. Finally that magical 80kg refused to go all the way three times. He was determined and persistent! This just wasn't that day yet.
Pull-up clinic. Toni learning the secrets of kipping pull-ups. I believe this was useful training for him and we utilized Cherie Chan's tutorial video for this purpose.
My body really wasn't in the best possible shape in the morning. I felt it in advance and decided yesterday to concentrate in some skills in the morning. It turned into a pull-up workout and handstand skills training. Toni did a new PR for bench press.
Workout. For quality.
10 rounds of
5 wide grip pull-ups
5 ring pull-ups
5 attempts of handstand
I performed my pull-ups with ease. I had no juice to for strength training today but this workout was perfect for me. 100 different type of pull-ups and skills training as well. Doing pull-ups with rings will definitely work for my benefit with muscle-ups in the future. I also wanted to do the regular bar pull-ups with a grip that is way wider than normally.
He had a lot of reps today. 3 rep sets up to 80 as intended. He then took 85kg up twice. After a short rest, three reps popped up. Same happened with 90kg. This encouraged him to go for new personal record and he got it, 92.5kg! Toni still pursued 95kg but it wasn't time for that, yet… Strength training was followed by hero called Annie, 150 double unders and sit-ups in sets of 50-40-30-20-10. Time 10.50
I had a good night sleep after yesterday's hard work. I had planned to sleep for ten hours but I woke up earlier than scheduled. The game was scheduled to begin at 2.00 p.m. I woke up at nine, ate a good breakfast, did some stretching, took a look at yesterday's events and dug up the enthusiastic feeling from those. Chicken pasta was my early lunch at 11.00 a.m. and then it was time to head to the game. We finally won by two goals margin. We already lead the game 5-0 ten minutes to final buzzer.
Now I'm gonna go to sauna, eat more, relax and do some stretching so that I'm able to go to the box early in the morning with Toni who had a rest day this Sunday. I heard the guy is still sleepy and exhausted from HC Triplet. No wonder, it was tough and awesome!
Let's go back to the time just before HC Triplet started. Toni is telling what is ahead of him in a few seconds :)
Saturday. HC Triplet II. Three workouts. Time 23.56 & 171 reps. Toni 38.31 min & 104 reps.
Check out previous HC Triplet to get the idea thoroughly. Three workouts, each one need mental game to be finished with glory. We have both been waiting for this day for two weeks, I've been nervous about it for quite a while and yesterday we both were so anxious it was difficult to go to sleep :) Our preparations were good, we had a video camera, lots of snacks between workouts and recovery drinks. We completed the workouts in turns. Toni started, I followed after he finished. First two events took place outdoors at Pirkkola outdoor sports center and the last one at our box. Our equipment consisted of 20kg kettlebell, 25kg homemade sandbag, jump ropes and Rogue rings. The day was freaking awesome!!!
Toni has given his everything for event 2
Event 1. Time 10.51, Toni's time 15.35.
20 kettlebell swings (american swings)
10x20m shuttle run
30 burpees
10x20m shuttle run
40 squats
10x20m shuttle run
50 double unders
10x20m shuttle run
60m bear crawl
10x20m shuttle run
There were 5 sprints of 10x20m shuttle runs. In between sprints there were mostly bodyweight movements except for kb swings. This time we did kb swings American style compared to Russian style. The difference is that American swings require the kb to go all the way overhead where as Russians go above eye level. The constant turning in the sprints made it more difficult than just running for 200 meters, it brings more stress to legs.
Bear crawl
That kettlebell was like air as we both were swinging it, I guess our strength levels have increased so that this weight is clearly lighter than before. I'd really like to have a heavier one. After completing 30 burpees heart beat naturally got higher and brought issues to respiration for the rest of the workout. I went unbroken all movements but double unders. I stumbled once and I had to take another break voluntarily before finishing it in three parts. That final bear crawl was hard! I thought it would be easier but once I got it going it was difficult indeed. My heart was beating heavily and I was happy it wasn't for longer distance. This event's purpose was to put breathing and overall conditioning to real test and it worked just perfectly for that objective!
Doubles
Toni, I really need you to unravel what your feelings were during this workout!
I'll have to check Toni's time from the videos afterwards as my timer started messing around.. Our new tool, homemade sandbag received mixed feelings, I believe we both love and hate it now :) Walking lunges with that "Sandy" at my neck got to my hamstrings badly. We calculated the distance of 30 meters, on the other end of it one had to do clean & jerks with kettlebell, alternating hands after each rep, 7 reps with both hands. On the other end there was a pull-up bar where 10 reps had to be done. Do sandbag lunges to reach the kettlebell station and sprint back to pull-ups with the sandbag. Total of 150m sandbag lunges, 150m sandbag sprint, 70 clean & jerks (35 each hand) and 50 pull-ups.
Sandbag lunges
I did this workout unbroken which cheers me up a lot. 50 pull-ups during that workout isn't that easy so this was spectacular! The sandbag lunges were the most difficult move for me during this workout and probably during the whole Triplet, Sandy got nasty on the third round. At some points the jerk felt heavy but once I remembered to use legs as well to push it to the sky, it eased the movement. Pull-ups were heavy but I got a good hip drive throughout the workout so I managed to get it unbroken in all rounds. Three movements which brought at least some burden to legs really hit my hamstrings and groin. My groin cramped, same happened after the workout as we took our gear and headed to our cars. My left calf cramped a few times. It was easy to drive with my clutch leg cramping, not… :)
Toni, I believe this event 2 was the most difficult for you as well, tell us what happened! The lunges were pure nightmare in the middle of the workout.
Event 3. Result 9 rounds + 9 ring push-ups. Toni's result 5 rounds + 5 box jumps
12 min amrap
9 ring push-ups
6 box jumps
3 wall climbs
Final event! We changed some clothing and headed to the box. The third and final workout was waiting for us. Some arrangements were done, we created a stage for the athletes to perform their last workout of the day. 12 minutes, as many reps as possible. One round consisted of 9 ring push-ups, 6 box jumps (approximately 45-50cm), 3 wall climbs. Toni started again and I followed after he was done with the Triplet.
Box jumps
I had no strategy for this third event before it started but quite soon realized what to do. For two rounds I went unbroken, then I figured out that ring push-ups would turn out to a problem if I tried hitting them unbroken all rounds. That's why I broke it in 5+4 push-ups. From the video I noticed my form looks kind of odd. My bottom is too low and makes my back arch too much. My upper torso goes up and down as it should and elbows / shoulders hit 90 degree angle in line with each other. They are definitely counted but I'll pay attention to my form and keep my booty higher and core straight next time I do push-ups / ring push-ups.
Box jumps were pretty much the rest period for me in this workout. We have been waiting for that official Rogue plyobox of 24 inches (64cm). Wall climbs were naturally the most difficult one. It brings such a huge load to shoulders and triceps. And right after that doing ring push-ups was cruel. My triceps were in flames during the workout. That was that hindered me for going after higher amount of reps. But hey, I'm very happy for completing 90 ring push-ups, 54 box jumps and 27 wall climbs in 12 minutes.
Wall climbs
Toni, you got total of 5 rounds, 9 ring push-ups and 5 box jumps. How do you feel about this workout. Tell us how it went on your behalf.
This day was definitely hard, throughout the body. First of all, metabolic conditioning, secondly hamstrings and legs in general, finally shoulders and triceps also got their share. Heavy breathing throughout the day. I noticed same effects on Toni, he fought bravely through the day. The name of the day was not HC Triplet in vain. It really deserved the hard core extra name. My body needs to get rest this evening. Tomorrow it's game day and I will be ready for it!
I will be playing with the videos for some time before adding them in to the Youtube channel and some of them in this blog as well. I'll keep you informed
There's been a while since last total rest day and the weekend is important so I'm not doing practically anything today. Just eating, a lot, and fueling up carbs for tomorrow's HC Triplet. I've had butterflies for several days because of tomorrow's hard work. We made some last moment modifications to the workouts and added reps / distances / work to be done. Let's see how it all turns out. Also check out the previous HC Triplet.
Here are the workouts I've done after my previous rest day. Some of the days were easier naturally, still there has been a lot of hard work. I genuinely believe and feel that development has taken place. In addition to the workouts I have rowed 1k almost every day, about 12k in total.
3.11: Back squats, metcon, ring skills
4.11: Deadlift, birthday wod
5.11: Thrusters, metcon
6.11: Front squat, metcon
7.11: Shoulder press + floorball
8.11: Snatches, technique, skills
9.11: Back squats, bench press
10.11: Shoulder press, push press, metcon + Game Day
11.11: Tabata workouts
12.11: Back squats, metcon + jogging + floorball
13.11: Snatches, overhead squats
14.11: Clean & jerk, two pair wods + floorball
Yesterday was a rough one and rest period after that hardcore training was short. In addition my night sleep was short in time, about 5 hours. We decided yesterday with Toni that today we are going to take it easier in the morning. We took a 75min training session anyway but we left heavy weights alone in the corner.
I started with classic 1k row for 3.29, then 5x30 double unders. First four rounds went unbroken but that fifth set stopped at 26 reps so I took it again to reach 5 unbroken sets. There was a total of about 200 du's. Session also included technical issues for snatch and overhead squats with only a 20kg barbell.
Other skills related things we practiced were handstand and handstand push-ups as well as ring skills. I also tried to do a ring push-up but it felt a bit wiggly and way too difficult so I couldn't push myself up, not yet. Toni did pretty much similar workouts but he rowed for 2 km for starters he has put on the calendar a weekly distance for rowing, how far away are you now buddy?
Finally we took some mobility work for fifteen plus minutes.
Self made 25 kg sandbag, stuffed inside three massive refuse sacks and sealed with 50 meters of duck tape =D Doing this sandbag was a wod in itself, we were both exhausted after finishing the sandbag. It was quite an operation...
Wednesday. 1k row, time 3.22. Strength clean & jerk (max PR 70kg, clean PR 75kg), pair wods consisting of farmer's walk, dumbbell thrusters and step-ups, twice. Floorball in the evening.
This day was simply phenomenal! A lot of work was done and some personal records were broken. We took off with Toni by rowing our PR's, then we had strength training. I had clean & jerk on my list, Toni concentrated in push press. Then we took a pair wod, we loved it and felt we have more juice so we took another workout after that. In the evening I had my floorball practice. Between sessions we went to buy a regular sand bag with Toni and turned it into a "crossfit sand bag" =)
Row. Time 3.22, improving previous record with 4 seconds. In such a short distance, I have a feeling this was pretty awesome. I didn't have this in mind but as it felt light from the very beginning, I put some more power in the rows and it just slid through. I usually have my damper setting at 8, today as well. I have counted that some time ago I took 9 strokes to reach 100 meters, then it came down to 9, nowadays it's 7-8 strokes. I use a lot of leg power and I pull the handle quite far away and higher than I used to, that means the pull is more fierce and longer. Toni also id his personal record as he reached the momentum after seeing the digits on my clock. He was pulling it like a maniac and finally reached 3.27, that's pure force man!
PR
Strength. Clean & jerk 3-3-3 (60, 65, 70, 75 failed / PR 75kg clean succeeded). I took clean & jerks, sets of 3 reps starting from 60kg. My max for clean is 70kg and I managed to take three reps of c&j today so I was extremely happy. In addition I decided to go for 75kg and got the clean nicely. I used all my juice in that move and I couldn't get it going anymore, I dropped the bar after that. I tried it once more after some rest but it was impossible. I'm glad I got 75kg clean up, 5kg improvement, nice!
Clean & jerk, 70kg
Toni did push presses, 3-3-3-3-2 (60, 65, 70, 72.5k, 75kg). Take a look at his video to witness the last set.
Push press, 75kg, Toni
Metcon. Time 8.13. Use 25kg dumbbells for farmer's walk and 15kg dumbbells for db thrusters. Both me and Toni had farmer's walk on the agenda, my other movements were 60kg step-ups and 15kg db thrusters. Toni's movements were farmer's walk, ring push-ups and 15kg db thrusters, the number of reps are marked after the movement.
90m farmer's walk, (Ring push-ups, 14 reps)
Step-ups, 13 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk, (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters, 18 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (ring push-ups, 17 reps)
Step-ups 14 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters 14 reps (90m farmer's walk)
I hope you guys understand what this workout was all about =) We liked it, a lot! The main idea is that the 25kg dumbbells play the main role in this pair workout. The other one carries them continuously with farmer's walk style. While the other one farmer walks, the other does as many reps as possible during that time. If the one with the 25kg dumbbells, drops the db's, the other one has to stop as well. We did this workout at the gym so that 90 meters was a shuttle walk, 6x15m. My performance is listed first in the bullets above, Toni's movements are in the brackets. You still following? =)
Farmer's walk
I got all sets unbroken except the last two rounds of farmer's walk. My hands were getting numb and I lost my grip on the dumbbells. It was also challenging to grab the dumbbells for db thrusters right after that. This was an awesome workout and got to the whole body exactly as I wanted. It was also great to get this walk on the workout as the gym was empty and we had the possibility to add this one to the wod. The most difficult was definitely the walk. Last time when I did step-ups, I wrote that more reps or more kilos should be added. This time I added reps but still I have the feeling I wanted to be more exhausted after them. Thus, I will add more weights next time. Thrusters were tough but manageable. Let's say I didn't mind Toni dropped his 25kg dumbbells in farmer's walk so I had to drop mine as well.
DB thrusters
Second metcon. Exactly the same, time 8.23. Time difference +9 seconds.
90m farmer's walk, (Ring push-ups, 23 reps)
Step-ups, 12 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk, (dumbbell thrusters, 10 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters, 16 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (ring push-ups, 13 reps)
Step-ups 12 reps (90m farmer's walk)
90m farmer's walk (dumbbell thrusters, 9 reps)
Dumbbell thrusters 17 reps (90m farmer's walk)
You know, we had an awesome feeling after the first workout and we kinda wanted something more. We thought of going for another similar type of workout but Toni threw the idea up to go for exactly the same workout and see how much of a difference will there be. Now it would be a matter of metabolic condition and also very much a mental game!
Our time was 9 seconds slower on the second metcon, not bad =) How about the number of reps between metcons?
Don
360m -> 360m farmer's walk
27 -> 24 step-ups
32 -> 33 dumbbell thrusters
Toni
360m -> 360m farmer's walk
31 -> 36 ring push-ups
20 -> 19 dumbbell thrusters
Not a huge difference, we can conclude that we managed to keep up the pace with both speed and number of repetitions between metcons. After a long day of work it was a notification that got us smiling greatly =) Finally in the evening I had my floorball practice.
Morning gym club gathered again, Toni arrived in the morning with fury, he was determined to go for heavy kilos with his deafdlifts. I wanted to do clean & jerk but my elbow had other thoughts. I took some reps with warm-up weights and decided to drop it and focus on snatches and overhead squats. Someone had brought his own kettlebells to our gym so now there's two kb's for 1 pood, that is 16kg. I took some reps with 2 x 1 pood kettlebell clean & jerks in the end, as did Toni.
Kettlebell clean & jerk
Snatch. 5-5-5-5-5-5 (30, 35, 40, 40, 40, 40kg). This definitely is a technically difficult movement. I know it's hard for me to convey the bar close to my body from down to up. It's coming up in a swing mode, way too far a way from my knees, hips and chest. It's coming up and feels good but I can see it afterwards from videos that it's coming in a different way than I'd like. The other big issue is my squat during snatches. I have no problems doing normal snatches but as I start adding plates on the bar it gets heavier and "power snatch" is not possible anymore. It requires me to squat snatch. However, my overhead squat is not so natural yet so it hinders me adding more weights on the bar. My max snatch holds currently at 40kg, I have no problems doing the snatch with forty but adding five more kilos made it impossible today. That's odd. The bar should explode as I bring it up, it should definitely come up faster + closer to my body and I should be squatting simultaneously. Then it would be logical to get let's say 60 kilos up just like that.
Snatches, 40kg
Overhead squats. 5-5-5-5-5 (20, 25, 30, 35, 40kg). After snatches I took sets of overhead squats. I still remember the time when I couldn't do any overhead squats because of bad mobility. Now I'm able to do 40kg, that's the highest I've tried. My mobility is not an issue anymore, I've improved greatly. However, I better concentrate in pushing my knees out in a similar way as in normal squats. I've noticed that in overhead squats my knees turn a bit more inside compared to other type of squats.
I had done snatches and overhead squats for several sets, as I had also taken numerous sets with only 20kg bar and then added weights. At some point I thought ok now it's time for a metcon. I realized that I had been doing snatches and OHS for one hour… So I didn't have any time for a workout. At least I got huge number of reps for these two technically challenging movements. I enjoyed putting this much energy and focus on snatches today. I really hope and believe this one's gonna improve quickly. This is one of my favorites, it's so overall movement and really gives satisfaction as you're able to get the bar travel from the ground to overhead rapidly.
Deadlift
Toni took deadliest today, sets of 3 reps, I recall the highest was 135kg. Here is a sample how he lifted 100kg
Monday. Back squats 4-4-4-4-3-2 (max 120kg), metcon of wall climbs, ring dips and pull-ups.
We gathered at the gym in the morning 07.00 with Toni, classic morning training was ahead of us. Schedule stood back squats, in sets of four reps, go as far as possible with those sets. My goal was to go for 120kg with good form. At the end we took a pair metcon together with Toni, for quality. It consisted of wall climbs, ring dips and pull-ups. Today my 1k warm-up row took 3.33 minutes. In the evening I drove Pauliina to the airport as she flew back to Stockholm. I'll be visiting her once more and after one month she will return back home for good in December. From the airport I drove to my team's home stadium. I went jogging for 40min and then we had a 2h floorball practice. Rough day.
Strength. Back squat 4-4-4-4-3-2 (100, 107.5, 115, 120, 120, 120kg). I took a good warm-up, got my joints prepared for the upcoming workout and I was confident of reaching my goal of the wod. I took sets of 4 reps starting from three digit numbers, first 100kg, then 107.5kg, finally 115kg. Then I was able to touch the goal line, 120kg. I took 4 reps but wasn't totally satisfied with the depth of my squat. That's why I took another set of same weights, three reps came up. Finally I still wanted the same bar to come up, managed to go for two reps. This was a good session, very pleased actually. Doing 9 reps of 120kg is good for me, I really felt I did something good today!
Going for 120kg, 3 times
Toni also did back squats, went up to 105kg with 4 rep sets, here is a sample of his 90kg set.
4 reps of 90kg, Toni
Metcon. Five rounds of the following movements, pair wod, for quality.
5 rounds of:
3/3 wall climbs
6/3 ring dips
9/3 pull-ups
Ring dips
We both wanted to go for these movements so we did it a bit differently this time. We made it into a pair wod for quality, the other one rests while the other one performs. I took reps of 3 wall climbs, 6 ring dips and 9 pull-ups each round, Toni took 3 reps each movement. Toni started with three climbs on the wall and I continued immediately when he was ready. After I finished he did 3 ring dips and I rested. Immediately after he did his third dip I did my 6 reps. So the only time we had rest time was the period the other was performing. We rolled through all five rounds so there was a total of 15 wall climbs, 30 ring dips and 45 pull-ups. Toni's total was 15 each.
Wall climbs, Toni
My energy level was huge entering this workout so this was an easy one, all sets unbroken and easy as well, wall climbs were lighter than ever before. I thought those pull-ups might get heavier but they were also easy each round. Definitely a positive sign of development. Toni also did all wall climbs and pull-ups unbroken if I remember correct but those ring dips were broken in some of the sets.
Wall climbs, 3 reps
I got a good feeling of today's workouts. First of all, the heavy back squats succeeded and I got a lot of reps with heavy bar on my back. 4-rep sets over 100 kilos and numerous reps with 120kg. And the metcon in the end was smooth from the beginning to the end.
Jogging and floorball. In the evening I went jogging before our floorball practice. I was at the stadium over one hour prior to the starting time so I had no rush, I took it easy, just wanted to go running as I haven't done that for a while. I've taken care of my metabolic condition through rowing, metcons and floorball. It would be wise to go running once in a while. During summer I did it more often. This was a good day of practicing, now I'll concentrate in eating =) After I started eating more, I've gained about 2 kilos in weight, and I've been eating under the instructions of my own nutritionist, Pauliina :) She's the best trainer for me in this section, she's been taking care of eating the correct foods, balancing between carbs, proteins and fibers. Thanks a lot for that!
Sunday. Tabata workouts: push-ups (8), L-pull-ups (4), sit-ups (12). I was supposed to have a day off… Today is Father's Day and we spent it at the in-laws with Pauliina. Spectacular lunch and good company. As we drove home I wanted to do some crossfit training at home. I took some Tabata training with push-ups, L-pull-ups and sit-ups.
Tabata timer
Tabata. 8 rounds of 20sec work, 10sec rest. Total of 80 push-ups (result 10), 35 L-pull-ups (result 4), 100 sit-ups (result 12).
Push-ups (10+10+10+10+10+10+10+10)
L-pull-ups (5+5+5+4+4+4+4+4)
Sit-ups (14+12+12+12+12+12+12+12)
Tabata workout's idea is to do 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest, repeated 8 times. First I did push-ups for a total of eight rounds (10sec rest in between), then continued to L-pull-ups and finally sit-ups. I counted the number of total reps but the actual result is the lowest number of reps during those eight rounds. I had a total of 80 push-ups, lowest round was 10 reps. Total of 35 L-pull-ups, lowest round was 4 reps. Total of 100 sit-ups, lowest round was 12 reps. This time I planned my Tabata's beforehand. I decided to go for 10 push-ups each round to reach 80 reps in total. Previous times I've done as many reps each round as possible and my result has dropped from 20 reps in the first round to 3-4 reps in the last round. This new tactic brought me more reps in total and my lowest number was also better than before. This was the first time I did L-pull-ups as Tabata and as I hit 5 reps in the first round (my triceps were burning after push-ups), I decided to stick to that number. After three rounds I managed to get 4 reps in the remaining rounds.
L-pull-up
My sit-ups were strong. I decided to put myself to test in the first round and hit 14 reps. However, I decided to go for 12 reps each round. That's a number I can definitely reach and this time was no exception.
