Monday 22.7: DU's, bench metcon

Monday. Skills, 300 double unders. Metcon, 50 bench press (70kg). Penalties for air squats and burpees.

That tabata deadlift workout really feels in my lower back today. So much weight in so little time. I'm happy I was still able to recover so that it didn't bother today's workouts. I was still wondering in the morning what to do because my body was not at its freshest. Then I realized bench press was the name of the game. I don't enjoy that much of the traditional strength workouts like 5x5 or 5x3 type of strength moves but more like having a moderate weight on the bar and transform it to crossfit workout. Thus, the programming was as seen below.

Skills.

• 15 x 20 double unders with Toni, taking turns

When I was learning this skill, I used to do them pretty much every day. The progress was good but it really felt in my shins. Since I felt I mastered this skill, I've diminished the amount of them dramatically. It's mostly because of the shin pain. It's definitely a movement that should be kept in the warm-up scheme. When you don't practice them on a daily basis, there's no problem. Definitely worth practicing them.

We both felt like it was a perfect way to train for this skill. Our goal was at 300 reps and decided to hit it in sets of 20 reps, taking turns. So the rest period was the time the other one was performing. It went quite nicely. Could have done a bit better though. Both of us did the sets unbroken except about 3 sets. I'd hope to go unbroken all the way in such a short amount of reps. 20 reps ain't much in a row so that should be done unbroken. We're thinking to renew this one, however, increasing the reps a bit per set, let's say 25, then maybe 30. Some day we are at 50 rep sets =)

Metcon. Together with Toni.

• 50 bench presses, 70kg
• Every time you rack the bar, perform 20 air squats on the spot
• Every time you rack the bar, perform 10 burpees after finishing 50 bench
• Bench sets: 10, 8, 7, 6, 6, 5, 5, 3 reps
• Pony's sets: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 5, 5 reps

The main focus of the day was on bench press metcon. Complete 50 bench presses @ 70kg. There's a twist, actually two of them. Every time you have to rack the barbell, that creates 2 punishments. The other one has to be completed between the bench sets, the other one after finishing those 50 bench presses. 20 air squats immediately after having racked the bar. Plus 10 burpees for every time the bar is racked. Burpees are done in a row at the end of the workout.

I was able to finish 50 reps with 8 sets of bench, Toni done better, 7 sets. After 7 sets I was 3 reps behind him. So there was a total of 140 air squats for me, Toni accidentally did also 20 reps after the last set so he came to 140 reps as well. Then it was my time to make the calculation mistake after the presses. I quickly counted I had 8 sets and Toni 7 sets. The idea was to have a punishment for every time we racked the bar because you can't go anymore. So there should have been 60 reps for Toni and 70 for me but we did 70 / 80 reps.

Well, it didn't matter, burpee is a freaking awesome movement. It's so comprehensive way for conditioning. We did sets of 10 reps, put a mark in our notes and returned to burpees. This workout was very rough actually. It felt like I'd like to just lay down (which I don't do, ever) so I got on my feet and started walking around to recover. I looked at Toni and he didn't feel any better =) Go give it a shot and let me know if you did it! I'd like to know how you felt.

There you go, some Dusy Hyland's handstand walk drills

Plus, Graham Holmberg getting ready for the Games