Monday 1.7: Complex and a rowing metcon

Monday. Strength: 10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press @70kg). Metcon, 2k row. Every 250m perform 5 strict shoulder press + 5 diamond push-ups. Wear a 9kg vest. Time 13.36

I love cleans! It was time for another complex type of workout, combining cleans and push presses. It was perfect. And the metcon to follow, huh, exactly what I wanted. And it gets better. I had Pauliina and Tony the Pony with me, couldn't be better.

Strength.

• 10 x (hang squat clean + full squat clean + 2 push press)
• 70kg on the barbell each set

Was wondering the weights for a second and then realized 70kg would suit well for my purposes. I wanted to have 2-position squat cleans: from hang and from ground. I can clean 95kg from the ground but haven't probably done cleaned more than 70-75kg from hang position. And there were also 2 push presses to be done after the cleans. So I got my head around 70kg and completed all sets with the same weight.

It was good to have Tony with me to coach. We did our strength parts alternating so that we were able to give feedback to each other. That was valuable. My elbows weren't in perfect position in the first 2 sets. After that Toni pointed out the importance of the elbows shooting straight ahead. The weight was not that heavy that it would force me in having them in the right position so it was crucial to have a coach saying that out loud. Thanks for that man.

Barbell flew up pretty nicely in my opinion. That 70kg isn't that bad and it was awesome to realize it was also easy on the hang squats as well. The push press was the toughest part strength-wise. However, I had no doubts in any of the lifts. The weight was simply perfect for today. Could have been 75kg but no point in going further from that in this type of workout. It was about one set per 1.5min throughout the workout.

Metcon. Time 13.36

• 2.000m row
• Every 250m, perform the following:
• 5 strict dumbbell presses, 2 x 17.5kg
• 5 diamond push-ups

This was nice. Rowing pace was around 1.40 / 500m in the beginning and the latter kilometer was around 1.45 / 500m. I usually go with the damper setting of 8 and today was no exception. 250m is a short sprint, only about 20 strokes so you can put more effort there. Those presses and diamond push-ups started to eat some of the strength which caused the pace to slow down a bit. Still, that was not the bottleneck, it was more like the transition times between movements.

Had 2 x 17.5kg dumbbells with the strict shoulder presses. Those went unbroken as well as the diamond push-ups. Those concentrate more pressure in the triceps. Having 9kg vest on from the beginning makes it a bit tougher on every aspect of it. In the beginning it felt awkward to row with a weighted vest but I got used to it pretty quickly.

Enjoyed this workout and this entire training session a lot. These were all good wods, first the barbell complex and then some wet-shirt metcon wearing a vest. Loved it!

Toni's workouts.

• Back squats (80, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, 115kg)
• Metcon. 4.5 rounds of: 10 box (61cm), 10 dumbbell snatch (20kg). Time 5.45

Pony did some old school strength to strengthen his posterior chain. He did some beautiful squats, good depth on the reps, good form in general, and good breathing technique as well. Highest set was 115kg. Then it was time to move on to his metcon, consisting of box jumps and db snatches. He completed those snatches changing hand after 5 reps: first 5 left, then 5 right hand. I put there 4.5 rounds because he was supposed to do 5 rounds but for some sick reason he forgot to complete the last set of snatches =) Well, he punished himself after he relayed it and did the 10 missing reps with 25kg. Fair enough.

Second part of Dan Bailey's short documentary