Thursday 2.5: Bar complex, metcon. + Sprints, handstand walk

Thursday. Bar complex for 12min EMOM. Metcon of burpees and dips, 21-15-9.

After a rest day I was ready to pump it up with heavy barbells. The program included barbell movements 12min, few reps each minute. It turned out exactly as difficult as I planned, lucky me! =) I finished the session in the morning with burning triceps. For some reason I didn't see it coming that doing burpees and dips would crash my arms but they certainly did.

2 more rounds to go

Complex. 70kg bar.

• EMOM for 12min
• 1 power clean
• 1 squat clean
• 2 front squats
• 2 push jerks

This was challenging and rewarding. I went on with 70 kilos on the barbell from the very beginning and stayed with it till the end. On the last 2 rounds I failed to get that latter push jerk up. That was a bit frustrating but all in all, this was a high-rep heavy workout and gave me that satisfaction I was looking for. I grabbed the bar from ground on the cleans, first a power clean, followed by squat clean. Then 2 front squats and finally 2 push jerks, total of 6 reps per minute, for 12 minutes.

It took about 20-25 seconds per minute to finish those movements and then I had half a minute to catch my breath. It made my heart beat like a good mtecon at points. However, the biggest burden still focused on my shoulder in the push jerks. The bar was simply too heavy on the last jerks on the last and second last set.

Metcon.

• 21-15-9
• Burpees
• Dips

Without clock running I also did 2 movements I've neglected lately. Even though I try to schedule burpees in my programming, it tends to fade away in the background. That's why I wanted to have some reps, accompanied with dips, also a movement that I'm not that fond of and haven't been doing them that much.

It surprised me how much this burnt upper arms, triceps especially. At times it felt difficult to push myself up from the floor on the burpees as dips took all my energy. The combination of these movements was a killer, despite the number of them, 45 each. Some cycling, hip openers and stretching in the end.

Sprints.

• Run 10 x 100m (40m slight uphill)
• Walk back recovery

In the evening it was time for running. Spring is coming and I'm getting the feeling that it's time to run. In the winter time it's not so cool to run outdoors when it's minus 20 degrees. Well, yes that's just an excuse but still it doesn't seem to be "my thing". As it's getting warmer, it's nice to do sports outdoors.

I measured 100 meters of which 60 meters was flat ground and the last 40 meters were a slight uphill. That was intentional, I found a good spot to do my sprints. My legs were jammed after 5 sets, probably because I haven't been running much in the past months. I'm happy we moved to a new home that is located next to the forest and the circumstances for outdoor running and sports are nearly perfect. The rest between rounds was about the time I walked back to starting line.

Handstand walk. To finish the training day I practiced handstand / handstand walk for about 15min. There's still lot to practice but now I'm confident because I have these spots near my home where it's easy to train. As long as I could hold my both legs over my head and further, it would be easier to find stability. Too often my legs tend to stay too far away from the correct position and that causes my legs to fall back. I'd like to master this skill by the end of the summer, let's see what happens! =)