Thursday 2.1: Handstand, OHS, snatch, running metcon + row

Thursday. AM: Skills, handstand. Strength overhead squats. Technique, snatch. Metcon, 6 rounds of: 400m run, 5 hang snatch, 5 hspu. PM: Every minute on the minute style of workout with 3k row, 120 pull-ups and 120 push-ups.

How awesome is it to be on holiday and being able to workout twice a day! And the possibility to go out to Liikuntamylly, which is like a mecca for an athlete =) I'm so thrilled every time I get a chance to go there. And today I had Toni as my training partner. Time flies by so quickly that at one point we realized we had been there for 3 hours haha. Then a lunch and it took us 4 hours total to do some training, nice. It was a PR day for both of us, I got this picture from Toni in the morning as we were both aiming for 75kg lift on the overhead squats. That sealed the deal!

Skills. Handstand. I tried both static handstand hold today and handstand walking. Succeeded pretty well in both of them. I attached samples of both in the recap video. Somehow I'm still wondering why my handstand skills suddenly improved even though I didn't practice that in over a month. That seems a bit weird to me but I don't complain!

Strength.

• Overhead squats 5x40, 3x50, 1x60, 1x65, 1x70, 1x75kg PR, failed on 80kg.

We took some wall balls, barbell warm-up, snatch balance to get joints loosened up and ready for pumping. For starters lengthier sets with lighter weights and then from 60kg on it was all about singles. We were purely after the PR, won't deny that. I still wanted to get a couple of reps with lighter weights and here some tips from Toni, the new L1-ceritified coach. He really has an eye for giving tips on the form. It's a different thing am I able to change my habits.

It was an awesome feeling to get that 75kg down and up. It's no issue in the overhead squat to come back up from the hole but it's more of being able to maintain a rock solid core while going down and how to lock the elbows so they wouldn't shake all around while holding the bar over you head. Once you hit the parallel you know you're gonna make a successful lift from there on. At least that's how Toni and I feel like.

It was a cool feeling to hold that 75kg overhead and even jerk it there because I haven't had a barbell in that position with a snatch grip. We both jerked 80kg as well but it was way too shaky for both of us so today there was no chance bringing it home with that weight. I felt like I'm going back and forth with the 80kg bar, just standing, not even trying to squat. Simply couldn't stabilize it.

Recap

Technique.

• Snatch clinic.

Snatch and especially snatch deadlift + squat snatch have been the thing we have been putting effort with Toni. The technique there should be way better than it's currently but we both believe we have already gained some important development steps. The starting position is something Toni keeps talking about when pulling from the ground. And how the knees should be getting out of the barbell's way on its way up to the hip. The first pull doesn't have to be fast and fierce, it's more of the second pull from the hips that must be explosive. And while pulling, you must pull with your entire body, bounce the bar from the hips, shrug the shoulders and extend your whole body to create an open path for the barbell to come up in a beautiful vertical line. Then just drop under the bar quickly. As simple as that, in theory. In practice there's lots of repetition ahead of us before it looks like that. At least for me.

These clinics we've done with Toni have been very useful and it's not only about loading as much plated on the bar as possible but with lighter weights working on the bar paths and hoping the muscles will memorize it and soon it will happen automatically without too much thinking. We played around today with 30-40kg in the beginning and then took a couple of heavier reps, reaching a max of 60kg. At this point our bodies were already quite fatigued. And it was still a metcon ahead of us.

Metcon. Time around 17:30

• 6 rounds of:
• 400m run
• 5 hang power snatch, 40kg
• 5 handstand push-ups

This was a good metcon with a consistent pace all the way from beginning to the end. No reason to slow down at any moment. Each of my rounds were 2:50, varying only within seconds. The fourth round was longer only because we happened to arrive on the snatch station at the same time with Toni. He took his snatches before me so I waited for him to complete them.

I was very happy being able to maintain the same speed in all elements, running felt the same all the time. My shins were aching some because of those 400 double unders from Monday and I felt some pain on the 2 first rounds, then it faded away. The snatches were light but we decided to do them as hang snatches. Hspu's felt like they were flying up and down.

This place is awesome as it's possible to combine running to barbell work and bodyweight stuff too. Can't dismiss this possibility.

Metcon. Every minute on the minute for a total of 30min

• First 10min:
• Odd minutes, 10 pull-ups + 10 push-ups
• Even minutes, 200m row
• Second 10min:
• Odd minutes, 8 pull-ups + 8 push-ups
• Even minutes, 200m row
• Third 10min:
• Odd minutes,  6 pull-ups + 6 push-ups
• Even minutes, 200m row

We went to have some lunch afterwards with Toni, then back home to chill for a while before entering the gym for second session of the day. This was a 30min emom training go rowing, pull-ups and push-ups. The main idea was to row for 200m every other minute, on the even minutes and then do a couplet of pull-ups and push-ups on odd minutes. I decreased the amount of them after every 10 minutes with 2 reps on both movements.

It was a total of 3.000m rowing, 120 pull-ups and 120 push-ups. Rowing pace was consistently at 1:40 so it took 40 seconds to finish those 200 meters. In this workout I wanted to spend no more than 40 seconds on the rowing because this was second session of the day and I didn't want to wear myself out totally. It was a good interval to work on.

Pull-ups turned out to be the most tasking element of these three. Push-ups worked well and were the easiest of them. Good session in general. I did something you might distantly call ghd sit-ups, something like 40 reps, working the core. They were done on a big gym ball so it's probably nothing similar to ghd sit-ups but the movement looked something like it. Then lots of mobility to the end.