Tuesday. Pair wod with Toni. 100 du's, 40 power cleans (60kg), 80 push-ups, 40 deadlifts (60kg), 80 box jumps, 40 back squats (60kg), 100 du's. On top of every minute, both athletes perform 4 burpees.
It was a day off for Pauliina as well so we had the chance to hit the gym during the day. Toni was working but managed to join us quite early. We met at the gym at 1.00 pm for a pair wod. Warming up just to get prepared for the chipper that was ahead of us. No strength today, I knew it's better to leave heavy barbells alone today. It's been a lot of work lately so it was about time to take a metcon with bodyweight and light weights only.
Chipper. Together with Toni
100 double unders
40 power cleans, 60kg
80 push-ups
40 deadlifts, 60kg
80 box jumps, 61cm
40 back squats, 60kg
100 double unders
On start of every minute, both athletes perform 4 burpees
I relied completely on Toni to come up with a good plan of a pair wod for us. I was ready for anything, didn't have any specific plans for today. The only thing I spiced it up with was the burpees. 4 reps on top of every minute. The workout started with 4 burpees and every time the minute changed we both got down to complete 4 burpees. Only after both had done them, it was okay to continue on the chipper. It doesn't matter at what point of the chipper we were on, as long as minute changed, we stopped the workout and completed burpees. That's kind of a sick twist.
If you've done Air Force workout, you know what I'm talking about. It changes the nature of the workout quite dramatically. That's because if you give slack to yourself, the clock doesn't and there's simply more burpees to be done. So you better get your ass moving and try to be as fast and effective at all times of the workout.
For me this was a good breather. Without the burpees it would probably have turned out a little too short and easy but the burpees made it interesting. It wasn't too bad, I was able to keep a good pace throughout the workout and felt good (in the discomfort zone) all the way. None of the movements produced any problems and I was able to chip them away as planned when it was my turn. We divided the movements in small pieces to prevent the other guy from resting too much and that proved to be a good decision. In pair wods I'd like to see both doing a lot of work and not resting too much.
This was the only workout of the day, just some ring extensions in the end to fool around. Toni, you could throw in some of your thoughts of the chipper? By the way, I'll post some thoughts about the past year tomorrow. In the mean while, I want to wish you all a happy new year!!!
Another day @ Liikuntamylly. Supposedly it's gonna be a great time and it definitely was. My body was very tired in the morning so I didn't get 100% of the training session but it was worth working out. I did handstand practicing to start with, then clean & jerks, and finally a metcon with running, barbell and bodyweight action. In the afternoon there was a second session that concentrated in skills; a 5min pull-up set and then double unders.
"Handstand wall"
Skills. Handstand. Can't see a reason why not to practice this particular skill here in Liikuntamylly. As I've written it's just perfect platform to keep developing this skill. It felt as natural as last time. The limiting factor was my tired shoulders that weren't able to keep up with the training. I kept it a little shorter this time just to save some energy on the latter part of the session.
Strength.
30 x clean & jerks, 60kg
I had ambition to do Grace today. I had written it down on my calendar about a week ago. This would be ideal place to do it because it's obvious that shoulders are going to get burnt during the workout and there's a huge temptation to drop the bar occasionally. I've always done Grace at my home gym and lowered the barbell gently on the floor. You lose some energy each time you do that so completing Grace in a place like this would be simply awesome.
I took a couple clean & jerks just to see I didn't have enough juice in my tank to complete that workout. Instead I took no pressure in completing 30 reps of clean & jerks with the same weight, 60kg. I took sets of 4 reps till the end, with rest between sets. Didn't time this one at all, it was more like a technique clinic this time. My breathing was well controlled all the way, this was not a metcon of any kind.
Metcon. Time 12.20
4 rounds of:
250m run
4 clean & jerks, 60kg
30 double unders
4 handstand push-ups
I saved the heavier breathing to this one =) This session was easier in nature and thus I didn't go all in in this one either. First I thought not to time it at all but had second thoughts just to see how much time it would take, I was curious. There's a 200m indoor track so going around it was around 250m considering the spot where I did the other movements.
Wanted to get more of those clean & jerks with a fatigued body, so I added 4 reps with the standard weight and some skill moves to add the stakes: double unders and hspu's. I went unbroken with everything but double unders on the first round. I found it difficult to find a rhythm at start but once I got a hold on it, it was easy.
This was a good breather and would be killer going for let's say 20min amrap or something like that. Today this was well enough to get me gassed =) I went home, took a power nap for 30min and made good food. I'm enjoying this holiday to the fullest concentrating in sports as much as possible. I still have one week to go before going back to work and that's just great. I'm gonna come back here in Liikuntamylly again this week.
Handprints on my hspu's
Skills. Afternoon session.
Every minute on the minute for 5min: 15 unbroken pull-ups
400 double unders
Mobility, stretching
I went to pick Pauliina from work and we naturally went to the gym right away. I just played around and didn't want to do anything too heavy so pull-ups and double unders seemed like a good way to stay active. And it really proved to do good to my body. I felt good and I', very satisfied to the work being done in the second session.
For starters I did some chest-to-bar pull-ups that's nowadays part of my warm-up routine. Then activating upper body. Then, the tratidional 3-2-1 go sound on my cell phone told me to start moving for 15 unbroken pull-ups every minute. It took about 18 seconds to complete and the rest of the minute was for recovery. It was a quick way to get 75 pull-ups done. Simple and effective!
After that I took a bunch of double unders. In different amount of reps each set, playing around, reaching a total of about 400 reps. In the end I put a lot of effort on mobility and stretching. It was worth the time to stretch out some legs and upper body.
Nate Schrader killing it. For time: 50 power cleans @ 102.5kg!
November stats. The figures from November's training sessions.
My first thought when thinking about last month is focus on my legs, squat strength. Worked to incorporate 2-3 squat sessions per week. At least I tried to. There were two benchmark workouts involved as well (Fran and Bradshaw). I forgot to update the stats from November earlier so here it comes without much stories attached =)
Sunday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Benchmark workout Elizabeth, 21-15-9, cleans (60kg) and ring dips. Time 6.08. Strength, bench press 4x5. Tempo ring dips.
Benchmark workout: Elizabeth! It was a great test. Started off with ring skills, then directly to Elizabeth after having done somewhere around 10-15 reps of both cleans and ring dips. Took the strength part afterwards because I wanted to try the benchmark wod with a rather fresh body. Finally I finished the training session with something new, tempo ring dips. Pauliina has been working on some cool moves lately: handstand, snatches and overhead squats.
Skills. Ring muscle-ups.
I took some touch on the rings, ring rows and ring muscle-ups. There's lot to do on my ring skills and ring muscle-ups. Each rep is very challenging and seems to suck the explosiveness and strength out of me. Completing multiple reps is not real life at the moment. I have to develop my skills more to being able to go unbroken for several reps. At least I have the tools for it as the rings exist at my gym.
This was cool! It's been an ongoing conversation whether you should do Elizabeth with power or squat cleans. Haven't found a truth to this matter. Some people say "clean" means full clean, a.k.a squat clean. Others say you can decide which version you do if it's not defined specifically. They did Elizabeth with power cleans in the Crossfit Games one year, guess it was 2011 or 2012. I've understood you can decide it's the athlete's own choice. Pretty much like Grace - 30 clean & jerks - where you can do it either way. Naturally most do it with power cleans.
Elizabeth
I've done Elizabeth once before. It was squat cleans that time. Anyway, I improved the time with 4:20. Changing it from squat to power naturally makes it faster and energy-saving workout. Still, I performed pretty well on the cleans. Did 10 at first set, then 6+5. Same with the dips. The round of 15's was 3x5 on the cleans and 5+2+2 on the last round.
I did the Winter War qualification event some time ago which included 30 power cleans with 50kg. Must say that this 60kg barbell felt lighter this time. What does that tell? My body may not have been too fresh when I did it. Must add 20-rep benchmark for cleans as well. It would be nice to see what weight I could go for 20 unbroken reps.
Elizabeth got my breathing go heavily from the start. Cleans always gets. Enormous chest pain (from the dips) hit me couple of minutes after the workout in a similar way as the long-burn hits the forearms after Fran. It went by quickly though and it was time to move on.
Strength. Bench press 5-5-5-5 (70, 80, 80, 80kg). As you can see the weights I was able to handle after Elizabeth were very moderate. My max is a bit over 100kg and today the last reps on the sets of 5 with 80kg were tough =) It was the ring dips that caught me. I still believe it was productive to do strength training after the metcon to surprise my body. They usually do strength training after metcons in competitorswod. I find it a bit awkward and today didn't convince me to change my methods. I'll keep on going with skills first, then strength, and finally metcons.
Tempo ring dips. Something new in the end. I took a 5-10 seconds to lower myself to the bottom position, then stayed in the hole for 10 seconds. That calls for one rep. I took a couple reps. This should yield in better bottom position in the muscle-ups.
Saturday was going to be posterior chain day. Was pondering between squats and deadlifts. It's been quite a long time since last time I went heavy on the deadlifts so it was 'bout time. I only had time to do the strength part as we are going to meet my paps and bros in the afternoon.
It was cool to go after deadlifts after a long break. I felt a bit stiff in the warm-up and the empty bar felt heavy =) I did foam rolling, opened my hips and kept adding stuff on the bar to feel good. It worked. I didn't have a structured plan so I started with 5's. What I knew beforehand was that I wouldn't go to max loads.
Went up to 170kg as 5's. Then I decided I'll hit a triple @ 180kg. From then on it was time to come back on the ladder and simultaneously increase the amount of reps. Did 10 reps @ 150kg and finally 10 @ 130kg.
That 150kg load was a tough one to handle for 10 reps. I'm so glad I got it up anyway. Forgot to put the camera on so you guys missed it. Other lifts should be there on the video.
Recap of deadlifts
I took the longer sets just to get some heartbeat up and to see what level my endurance is at on the higher rep sets. I'll go for that 20-rep benchmark someday on the deadlifts and squats as well and I've been wondering what weight to hit first. Maybe something around 120-130kg for deads and 100kg for back squats. We'll see.
In the end I took some one-arm extensions on the rings. That's a newcomer. I think I'll start playing more with the rings from January on. This seemed like a good movement for core work. I did it from the push-up position but next level is going to be hanging from the rings like Dusty Hyland shows on the video.
Another great day! It was no surprise to me beforehand. I was about to meet Toni @ Liikuntamylly, our favorite venue for training. It's usually a place where PR's are born. Today was no exception. I wasn't looking for them but Toni was aggressively after overhead squat records and he made the old one look light. There was plenty of work being done in the morning time. Skills, strength, technique and benchmark wod. We were totally done after Nancy. In the afternoon I went to pick Pauliina from work and decided to do some rowing intervals.
Toni snatching
Skills. Handstand. For me it seems odd that having a long break of handstand training in the autumn time has done good things to my skills. Today I was able to stay inverted longer than ever plus the distance I was able to handstand walk was clearly a PR. It just feels good being upside down. And the platform at this place for practicing this particular skills is perfect. It's made for running, like a track and field type of platform. I couldn't imagine a more suitable ground for handstand skills training.
Handstand skills training
Strength. Overhead squats 3-3-3-3-3 across (60kg). I'm having troubles to workout in a place where I could drop barbells from overhead position so every time I'll get a chance to come here in Liikuntamylly or the cave in Eltsu you'll see me do some sort of overhead movements or olympic lifting. I had predetermined the weights I'm gonna use today. When I've done ohs strength sets, they have always been at 50kg. I wanted to take this to next level and hit 60kg on the bar. My current max is at 70kg so this weight is something where I have to concentrate a lot.
Toni working on his HS
Toni was giving me tips throughout the session. He just completed the L1-trainer's course at Tampere and was being guided with bad ass coaches around the world. Let's mention Jami Tikkanen for instance, a Finnish legend from Crossfit Thames, London. Anyways, Toni was putting effort in my form, having back in correct line, having a tight midline, having my knees pointed out all the time and sitting below parallel. Thanks for the tips Toni!
Handstand walk
It felt very good being able to handle that 60kg good enough. At points I forgot to listen to Toni's hints so my form wasn't great. Still, it was manageable. I'll have to do more work on my mobility in order to being able to narrow my hands on the bar. My grip is as wide as it could possibly be. Have to pay attention to all those tips I've read from the professionals, Chad Vaughn is the first guy that pops in to my mind.
Toni did something like 3x50, 2x60, 1x60, 1x65, 1x70 PR. He also pressed 75kg up but his stomach was already full from the record that the squat part failed to complete. Congrats on the PR!
Recap of ohs & snatch
Technique. Snatch. After having done ohs we moved on to learning things on snatch. We put a lot of effort on the starting position, first pull, high pulls, and some squat snatches as well. This was more like a snatch clinic, not strength training. Max weight must have been 40kg that we fooled around with. It was a very good session and I understood some issues from the starting position and the way my knees should behave on the first pull. Once again, because of my training partner.
Toni's snatch clinic
Nancy.
5 rounds of:
400m run
15 overhead squats, 40kg
Uuh… It was tough. These two elements we are talking about - running and overhead squats - are my weaknesses. That's how I feel the game. So it was crucial to finally do this benchmark wod. I thought it would become an issue with the overhead squats because there were gonna be 75 reps in total! Well, it turned out I was managing it unbroken up to 72 reps. At the 13th rep on the last set it was too much to handle for my shoulders and it started to fall back. I corrected it too much and it fell forward.
The way I performed on this one was something beyond my expectations. In my own opinion, I did it great considering these definitely aren't my strong areas as a crossfitter. That's also why I enjoyed this so much that it's a high-rep workout. Just like yesterday when I did 60 reps clean& jerk with 60kg. It's important to have that muscle endurance and being able to keep going no matter what happens.
First 10min of Nancy
I don't pay attention that much on the time of the workout because we were doing this together with Toni with one barbell only. And there were times where we were both simultaneously at the bar so there were some time lost waiting for your own turn. It took about 18min with everything included. It was a cool workout in a sense that after running I didn't have to stop and gasp for air but I was able to grab the bar - if it was free - and start doing the reps. My third round was faster than the second and fourth was faster than the third. First round was 3:00 and the rest of them were about 3:30 if done without interruptions.
It was a very good training session! There happened to be other crossfitters as well in the morning. There was one guy having same Rogue shirt as I and another dude having same L1-coach shirt as Toni so that was kind of amusing =) We talked about technique and mobility for some time with the guys and I got to keep on digging to this area.
Intervals. Distance 3.424m
Row
30sec on, 30sec off for 20min
1min rest after 10min
In the afternoon I went to pick Pauliina up from work and we headed directly to the gym. My role there was to do interval rowing and lots of mobility. That classic 30sec on and 30sec off material was on the board again, it's been months since last time. My ass tends to get numb rowing at full speed so I took a 1min break after 10min. My pace was 1.31-1.36 all the way, mostly at 1.33 / 500m. I consider that a rather fast speed for me but that's what this workout is all about: going all in every set. Took lots of overhead squats with narrower grip, tried some sots press and finally foam rolled my thighs a lot, stretching as well.
Thursday. Every minute on the minute, 5 c&j @ 60kg, for 12min. Metcon, chipper style, main element being hspu. Time 18.15.
Back in action! Today was a real deal. Putting the new Rogue stuff on and heading to the gym with Pauliina, I loved it! Most burden was for my shoulders. Took a lot of clean & jerks for starters and was hammered after those. I recovered for about 10 minutes before jumping on to my metcon, a chipper style workout, which had hspu's on main focus. Great wod.
Strength. Clean & jerk
Every minute on the minute
5 C&J @ 60kg, for 12min
I gave myself a little slack prior to the workout and did not decided on the length of the workout. Hadn't been doing barbell work for a couple of days so I figured it might be quite heavy after Christmas. It was a lot of resting and chilling the last couple of days at the in-laws' place.
The first couple of sets / minutes went on nicely. However, after about 20 reps I started to feel the burden. Even though I hadn't decided on the time frame for this one, I wanted to go on and on. It felt so good to do clean & jerks and after having done "Grace", that is 30 c&j's, I knew I wanted to go further. And ended up doing 12 rounds and 60 reps. Of course it felt heavy towards the end, no question about that.
After I did the emom-ladder workout with clean & jerks last week, I wrote you guys I should be working with this movement at a weight around 60kg so this was exactly what I needed to do. And it was a great workout to develop muscle endurance and stamina with barbell work.
Recap of clean & jerks
I've got some technical improvement on my clean & jerks. I looked at one of Rich Froning's / Crossfit Mayhem's posts on their youtube channel where he was talking about how he lowers the bar from overhead position. So I tried it and it felt natural and smart. Take a look of Rich's tips below.
I felt very happy to being able to manhandle that weight today. Even though I got fatigued it didn't have an effect on my performance and I got the reps done similar all the way. Got to say I was happy the workout was over though =)
Metcon. Time 18.15
50 double unders
5 handstand push-ups
20 burpees
5 handstand push-ups
20 box, 61cm
5 handstand push-ups
20 pull-ups
5 handstand push-ups
20 pull-ups
5 handstand push-ups
20 box, 61cm
5 handstand push-ups
20 burpees
5 handstand push-ups
50 double unders
Needed a 10min rest in between workouts because my shoulders were smashed. That time was enough to get back on track. The hspu's were tougher than normally because of the work being done already. The workout started with 50 du's and ended there too. It pleased me a lot that I went unbroken with them in both ends!
There were 5 handstand push-ups between every other movement: burpees, box jumps and pull-ups, 20 reps each. Kind of 2 rounds, back and forth the same movements. The burpees felt very heavy, extremely heavy and especially the combo of hspu's and burpees got me. Box jumps and pull-ups went very well. Heart was beating like a maniac but I was able to keep on moving. All but one set of hspu's went ub. That was the after the first set of burpees. I jumped on the wall too quickly and lost balance after 3 reps.
This was a killer workout for me today. Maybe it was the clean & jerks before that or something else but the hspu's were challenging to me. It felt great anyway to being able to keep on rocking and moving on. Great workout!
