Monday. Complex, emom x 20. Odd min, 1 hang squat clean + 2 front squat. Even min, 1 power clean + 2 jerk (70-80kg)
Today's workout was inspired by crossfit athlete Jeremy Kinnick. Strengthening the entire body by doing clean and jerk type of complex in emom style. Nothing more was needed this time. It was a short training session and I got what I needed.
Toni's brand new Nano 4.0's boom
Barbell. Complex
Every minute on the minute, for 20min
Odd minutes, 1 hang squat clean + 2 front squat
Even minutes, 1 power clean + 2 split jerk
1-4min, 70kg
5-8min, 75kg
9-20min, 80kg
With a 20 minute running clock, perform a set of hang squat clean and front squats on odd minutes and then another combination of power clean and jerks on even minutes. So it was 10 rounds of both complexes. I had not pre-determined the weights but I climbed up as it felt the load was manageable. Started with 70kg, and after having taken 2 sets for both complexes I felt it's good to add weight. Did another 4min with 75kg before jumping to 80kg where I stayed for the rest of the workout.
I'm actually very happy I got to do this to the end with 80kg. Those hang squat cleans started to get challenging towards the end. My max clean from ground is 110kg and max hang clean is 90kg. That's because I tend to do hang cleans from the pocket, some might call it high hang. I took these hang squat cleans from the pocket too. So little by little I had to be faster in pulling myself under the bar.
My hands were slippery in the last 5-6 minutes even though I chalked them up all the time. It just didn't help at all, that was kind of strange. But it didn't bother that much, I used some hook grip to ignore those slippery hands. I'm feeling very comfortable and confident on having weight overhead. Split jerks are coming together and putting 80-90kg weights in the air feels good right now. I've been cleaning and jerking a lot of stuff this month because I wanted to make up the 2 week barbell break I had in the end of May. It's payback time =)
I had a good feeling about today's workout already before I stepped over the gym's threshold. My gut feeling was on spot. I feel like the programming today was good. Gymnastics to start with, work on those weaknesses. Then old school squat strength, and finishing it off with one qualification workout for Karjalan Kovin, one of the most known Finnish throwdowns.
Our newest family member
Gymnastics. C2B
Chest-to-bar pull-ups
7x6 reps, 0:50 rest between sets
I told about this one to Toni and he knew instantly where I got the idea from. 'Competitorstraining' for sure. Ben Bergeron has come up with a progression for c2b pull-ups. This is the first step, 7x6 reps, totaling 42 reps in 7 minutes. It's kind of like an emom workout for 7min. I thought this is a good starting point because I really wanna excel in c2b's. Regular pull-ups are rolling well already but I want to make this one of my strengths too. Had no problems in manhandling these reps which got my smiling all the way.
Strength. Squats
Back squat 5-5-5-5-5 (100, 110, 120, 120, 120kg)
"Regardless of what the problem is, the answer is to squat". Couldn't agree more with the statement, first introduced us by the founder of Crossfit, Greg Glassman. Lately I've been cleaning a lot as well as putting lots of weight overhead, thus squatting has not been the main focus. I think I'll put more effort on squats in the near future.
This time it was 5-rep sets for a total of 5 sets. Those 120kg sets were tough. They were hard last week too so this means I got to have more weight in my back and do the work. Legs have to be strong in order to do well in this sport. It's a strong prerequisite for having an efficient motor inside as well as strong legs.
Metcon. Result, 4rds + 7 thrusters (97 reps)
Karjalan Kovin, 1st event
5min amrap of:
10 box jump overs
10 thrusters, 40kg
My legs were smashed after having done those squat sets. Took couple of min rest before attacking this 5min amrap. I thought it was short so of course I could go all in even though those legs were screaming for help. High-rep thrusters have always fell short on my shoulders, never on my legs. Have I dropped the barbell on thrusters, it's been because of upper body. Shoulders have gone numb at some point. But legs have always churned on. Today my lower body was jello from the second round on. Guess those squats had their effect on this one.
I did both movements unbroken every round. I have a feeling I could have done these faster with fresh legs, or actually shorten the transition times between sets. It was a good short, intense workout and really got to me. Had to ask Pauliina to shake my legs after the workout, they were in shock after those 5 minutes. That was very helpful.
It sure was a good training day. Gymnastics/skills, strength and a hardcore metcon in the end. And my shoulders were feeling much better than yesterday. The recovery has taken place and they feel fine now. Looking forward to the upcoming week!
Saturday. AM: Workout, emom for 20min, combination of benchmark workouts. Strength, step-ups 5 x 5/5 (80-90kg). PM: Wall ball 100 reps
Even though my body feels tired and aches a little, especially in upper body I decided to go and hit a workout. Simply couldn't stay away =) And I'm glad I didn't. It was a good training session, lots of movement - barbell and man - took place and gains were achieved. One of my little bros had his confirmation party so we drove to my paps place for the afternoon to meet the family. It was some quality time for sure! After coming back home I came up with an idea of going to test the new wall ball. Pauliina was in to the idea so we went to explore the neighborhood for a good spot.
This is some sort of combination of four different benchmark workouts. First minute is one round of Cindy, the second minute is Grace, third one refers to Nate and the fourth minute is obviously Isabel. It is emom style workout which means you complete the defined workload, then recover for the rest of the minute before moving on to the following movements. After four minutes you start over, and continue for a total of 20 minutes.
It's not that easy to say which was the easiest or toughest one. Every set started to feel heavy at some point and it wasn't an easy recovery minute at any time. And my shoulders were burning already before the workout even started. I used same weights on the barbell for clean & jerks and snatches. Beforehand I thought about doing c&j's at 60kg and snatches at 50kg. It was a good decision to go with one barbell. Clean and jerks might still have been the easiest one to handle. 50kg is not that much, I don't remember doing this light reps with this movement.
Those muscle-ups were a disaster. I got the first rep done but from then on it was all fails. They were all close but I couldn't dive through aggressively enough. Plus one round of Nate would include 2 muscle-ups. I knew that would be too much for me as an emom workout. Hspu's and kb swings were okay stuff.
Those snatches surprised me somewhat. Each rep was tough and I had to take them as singles. Body was simply not receptive to these snatches. Used hook grip on most of the reps. 20 minutes was as far as I wanted to go.
Strength.
Step-ups 5 x 5/5 (80, 90, 90, 90, 90kg)
After resting for couple of minutes I still wanted to have something done. That workout burned my legs but there was something left. Squats would have been too much at this point but step-ups felt like a good idea. Haven't done those in ages. Really got to put core to work a lot too to keep the package tight. I took 5 reps with left leg and then 5 reps with right leg. One set with 60kg, another at 80kg and then couple sets with 90kg.
Wall ball.
100 reps
This was fun! I had no goals for this "workout". Just wanted to get used to my wall ball and check it out where would be a good place to throw that ball to the wall. I took 20 reps at first, then couple of 10's and then 15's in the end, short recovery between sets. It wasn't a metcon, more like skills and technique, getting used to the movement.
I've thrown some wall balls earlier but most of the time it's been my brother's self-made basketball filled with sand (9.1kg). Toni's Box has 8kg wb which we played around this Wednesday. This ball is 9kg and is going to be part of my outdoor workouts for sure. My gym's ceiling is not high enough so this could be used there but that's no problem, I'm sure there's gonna be great workouts ahead of me combining wall ball, kettlebells and bodyweight!
Friday. Technique, power clean (up to 90kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 5 hspu, 8 power clean, 12 t2b. Cashout, 30 hspu.
My body felt like a wreck waking up to this morning. The 50's workout was tough on Wednesday and the results can be felt in my posterior chain. Plus having done bench yesterday after a 2-month break feels in upper body. Heh so I feel like I've done some work! Today my focus was on a metcon, consisting of power cleans, handstand push-ups and t2b's.
Barbell. For technique
Power clean
8x40, 5x60, 5x70, 5x80, 1x90kg
Jon was doing the Karjalan Kovin qualifying workouts as we were at the gym together. After he'd done his workouts he took some power cleans with me. I just wanted to get some reps with heavier weights before starting my metcon. I focused on bringing the bar to upper thighs before shrugging my shoulders. It felt like the bar obeyed my commands.
I took all sets unbroken in touch'n'go style. They must have looked pretty similar all the way. On the 90kg lift and maybe the last rep of the 80's I had to widen my feet a bit more than normally. Other than that they were as good lifts as I have potential for. By the way, this is probably the heaviest weight I have power cleaned.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
5 handstand push-ups
8 power clean, 60kg
12 toes-to-bar
Having done those power cleans was a good warm-up for this upcoming workout. I also took some hspu's and t2b's to engage every muscle in my body before hitting it. I was able to do all sets unbroken, that was the main goal here. Wasn't rushing against the clock this time even though I completed it with good pace anyway.
Hspu's were the easiest part of this one for sure. I felt like I had plenty of juice to complete them. Could have been more reps every round and I still think I would have done well with them. Power cleans were much tougher. Not the weight itself but my grip was about to bail on me. I got them done but I was squeezing the bar as hard as I could on the last rounds. Hook grip would definitely help - I suppose - but that's a new thing to me so I'm not that comfortable with it yet.
On some of these sets I used hook grip but my thumb kind of slipped little by little and by the 4th rep it was always gone so I changed to normal grip on the fly. Guess that's something to work for in the future. Okay, forearms were devastated from those cleans and after every set of t2b's they were gone totally.
This got my breathing skyrocketing and that was the purpose. Hspu's rolled very well today and the other movements went unbroken too even though my forearms were dying.
Cashout.
30 handstand push-ups
I had something left and being inverted felt very good so I decided to make it a cashout with hspu's. My goal was to do 3 sets of 10 reps. Got 2 sets unbroken, then on the 3rd set it was 8-2. This was a very good hspu-day, totaling over 60 reps and body appreciating the work put in.
Yesterday's 50s workout kind of hurts in my body. My entire posterior chain is feeling it. Back, hamstrings and calves were all sensitive throughout the day. It didn't prevent training but I wasn't at my freshest moment in the afternoon. That's why I took it easier this time. Some bench triples and then bodyweight emom style workout. But there's something very joyful in the day too. After 2 years of thinking about it, I finally got my head around it and ordered a wall ball from Germany, so I'm a new proud owner of a 9kg wall ball, c'mon!!!
Strength. Bench
Bench press 7x3 (80, 90, 90, 85, 85, 85, 85kg)
I'm wondering when was the last time I benched. It must have been in April or early May… No idea whatsoever when it took place. Every time I bench it feels like a rest day. As a movement it's not something I get a lot of satisfaction. It focuses so much on those isolated muscles instead of developing entire body which is the reason I tend to neglect this one. Every once in a while I'll add it in. Usually when I have a lighter day of some sort.
I took triples all the way after warming up for longer sets of 60-70kg. First set @ 80kg was easy so I jumped up to 90kg and to took 2 sets with this weight. I didn't have a spotter and the latter set was a bit on the heavy side so I dropped 5kg from there to finish the remaining 4 sets. Those felt good all the way. I think I could have done more sets with 90kg.
A throwdown in Finland, the preliminary elimination round for qualifying for "Karjalan Kovin". 3 parts. 1st part, 5min amrap of box jump overs + thrusters. 2nd, 6min to find S2O 1RM. 3rd, 10min amrap of power clean + C2B + DU's.
Workout.
Every minute on the minute, for 8min
7 pull-ups + 7 burpees
This was something I liked to take in the end to get my breathing going. I got those reps done in about 25 seconds each round, unbroken with same consistent pace every minute. Pull-ups were a walk in the park all the way, no prob. Burpees went on with same pace too all the time but they started to feel consuming on my chest because of those bench presses prior to this workout. I still got them done solidly.
It was a lighter day for sure but it was good to have some bench in my system and pull-ups / burpees as an emom workout. I'll better start thinking about tomorrow's workouts now!
Training day with my main man Toni! Freaking awesome. He's on summer holiday and I was going to work for the evening so we had plenty of time to schedule our morning for some crossfit action. I got a chance to play around with different skills scenarios which was great. And we locked this workout together with Toni some weeks ago and decided to hit it some day together. That day was today!
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
Bar muscle-ups
Rope climb
It was great to get some room around me when attempting muscle-ups! At my home gym the wall is quite close for bar mu's and the ceiling is low on ring mu's. Those might be excuses but at least it was cool to practice these skills at Toni's crossfit affiliate as there was a lot of space to play around. I took some mu's on both rings and pull-up bar. I almost got 3 in a row on rings, well okay almost is as much as nothing so let's say I got 2 reps =)
On bar mu's I felt very good. I was able to do work with my entire body and hip was doing it's share in the process. I landed smoothly on top of the pull-up bar , not unevenly as I sometime tend to. These muscle-ups were good indeed.
Skills, recap
A newcomer in my training was the rope climb. Yesterday I checked the video below by Carl Paoli and with those tips in mind I was going to make it a successful attempt. He had effective tools to make it easier on the grip. Okay I didn't take many attempts but at least those didn't burn my forearms and hands in a similar way as it has 1-2 times before when I have climbed a rope. This is definitely something I'd like to do more often. I've seriously thought about buying a rope but I really don't know where to hang it for training purposes.
The most difficult part of climbing the rope was clinging the rope between feet. And the second toughest was coming down after reaching the ceiling. By following Carl Paoli's tips I saved my forearms a lot.
Workout. Regionals, Event 6. Result, 431 reps.
50 calories row
50 box jump overs
50 deadlift, 83.5kg
50 wall ball, 8kg
50 ring dips
50 wall ball, 8kg
50 deadlift, 83.5kg
50 box jump overs
50 calories row (got to 31 calories before time cap)
30min time cap
This looked rough at first sight. The very first time I saw this when it was published I knew I wanna do it someday. What I was most afraid of was the ring dip portion, 50 reps in a row is no joke as such but doing it during a workout was even more frightening. Box jump overs is something I've done once before, couple of weeks ago with Juuso in Pirkkola. But it was on a bench that was probably something like 40cm in hight. Today's box jump overs were on a regular 61cm box.
I started the workout with a steady and smooth pace on rowing. It would have been stupid to burst out of the gates and hit it hard in the very beginning. This was a long workout and winning couple of seconds on the rower would bring no real benefits. The thing where you make the difference in this workout are the breaks. How long are you gonna stop and breathe before continuing. We were done at the same time with Toni. We are definitely 2 different type of rowers as you can see from the video. Toni is pulling shorter and more frequent strokes where I aim to pull strong and then recover slowly before the next stroke. The result was even though, no matter the style. Toni was 1 stroke ahead after stepping off the rower.
On the box jump overs I felt being efficient. We did this "Regionals-style" meaning we moved the box further after every 10 reps. Same thing with the deadlifts, move the bar after 10 reps. I figured jumping right back after coming off the box is the most efficient style to nail these reps.
Deadlifts were light, we had 83.5kg. However, when doing 100 reps with any weight, it starts to come heavier than it actually is. I took 2 or 3 sets as 10's, then finished it off in 5's on the first round. Wall balls were 10's on the first round and it felt good. Even though my shoulders were getting burned and my lower back was also smoked.
First 10min
Next station, ring dips… I did much better on them than I expected! Got it done in sets of 5 reps up to 25 or 30 reps. After that I took it in 3-2 reps per attempt. These dips were very encouraging. On the latter set of wall balls i got some issues. My lower back was getting hotter and hotter after every rep and it felt horrible. I hoped to complete sets of 8-10 reps but after the first set it was actually 5's.
Having finished the wb's the deadlift barbell wasn't that attempting with a back that was burning hot already. I finished deads in sets of 5 reps all the way. After getting the last deadlift done I took a sip of water and started jumping around over the box. I think I did these as effectively as on the way up, for some reason these suited me very well!
This movement is a heavy breather though. After 50 more reps only the rower was ahead of me and the clock was ticking ahead. At this point the Open Gym was about to start and some people had already poured in and they were cheering us to finish strong. This really helped mentally and I was able to push through even though my heartbeat was through the roof. Rowing after having moved around for about 28 minutes is horrible. I gave it my all and was pulling the boat like a maniac. I had 31 calories when at the time cap so I was missing 19 calories to finish the entire workout. Toni had 8 box jump overs on his way back. To no one's surprise Toni had miscalculated the weights on the deadlifts and completed it with 73.5kg =)
I'm grateful for the chance to workout with Toni at their affiliate and for the coach who was there all the way with us and was talking us up from the very first minute all the way to the end. The spirit at the Box was great, once again.
After a tough barbell day it was a good option to leave the weights wait and concentrate on endurance work. Concept2 was the name of the game this Tuesday. I rowed my ass off and called it a day, then went home to host my in-laws that were coming to visit us.
Intervals. For 10.000m
500m hard, 100m easy
400m hard, 100m easy
300m hard, 100m easy
200m hard, 100m easy
100m hard, 100m easy
That is 2k. Rest 2min and repeat for a total of 5 rounds
I'll give credits to Gustavo Marquez (gmarx on Instagram) from NorCal Crossfit. He posted this one on Instagram and it was originally created by Chris Hinshaw, endurance coach for these bad ass guys in California. I occasionally take a look at Hinshaw's interval workouts and they have proven great each and every time. Today was no exception. It was a long one, total of 10.000 meters.
The point was to have 5 similar 2k rounds, with exact 2min rest between rounds. The 2.000m round was divided in a descending ladder of sprints from 500m to 100m hard sprint with 100m recovery between sprints. It was difficult to know what a "hard" would be in numbers so I went by feeling all the way. I tried to go at around 1.40 in the beginning and then it slowly slid to 1.45 and I was able to keep it sub 1.50 all the way. That was my goal in the end not to let it slip at 1.50 or worse. It got mental at some point but I made it.
The easy part was definitely easy, I just kept the rower moving but didn't make any real effort to keep up a pace. It was such a short distance - 100m - so I really took it for recovery purposes, the pace was mostly at around 2.20-2.35. I needed that slow pace to restore my energy tank.
To my surprise the most challenging part of these distances was not the first one - 500m - but more likely the 400m and 300m sprints. 500m portion always came after a rest period so it was a more like a smooth sail, at least compared to the following 400-300m sets. Then 200-100m sets were so short that they were mentally much easier and my pace was faster than in the longer distances.
It felt bad after 2-3 sets so it was pretty traditional feeling in any metcon. Once you hit the middle of the workout it usually sucks in a way and you got to dig yourself up somehow from the dark place. My pal Joni came to say hi at around 5k and I remember hoping it would be more towards 7-8k already. This was a great one. I hope these guys keep on posting workouts to Instagram for inspiration. I have huge respect for them!
Monday. Barbell complex, 2 clean + 2 front squat + 2 jerk. Start at 40kg, add 5kg per set. Go until failure, then start over. Result, first round 90kg, second round 85kg.
Start @ 40kg, add 5kg after every set. Continue till failure, then start over.
Result. 1st round 90kg, 2nd round 85kg
I remember having done this at least 2-3 times before, this is kind of my own benchmark workout (Don) haha. Well, I'll give some credit to Chris Spealler who I saw do something like this way way back. I tried it once then, and fell in love on the complex right away. I've been testing myself every now and then to see how my strength levels have increased. And it has definitely been a positive signal that I've always been able to lift heavier weights than previous time.
I checked it afterwards that on those earlier occasions I've done 1 power clean and 1 squat clean. Today my goal was to hit it with 2 power cleans all the way. I almost stuck to that plan. Only the last clean on both rounds were squat cleans. That means the latter 90kg clean on the first round and the latter clean on the second round at 85kg were squat cleans, everything were power cleans. That was great job for me! I tend to go squat clean when it goes over 80kg to develop my full clean.
So the nature of the workout is that you do all those 6 reps (2 cleans, front squats and jerks) touch'n'go style without readjusting the grip anywhere in the middle. When I did this one for the first time my 1 rep max jerk was around 80kg (now it's 105kg) and the point was to start at about 50% of that 1RM. So just for comparison purposes I've done this in a similar style, starting at 40kg still at this date. Add 5kg after every set (those 6 consecutive reps) and try again, a little heavier all the time.
Those first sets are obviously light but they are actually very good warm-up and preparation to those heavier sets. My work capacity today was very good indeed. I must say. Power cleans went smoothly, the bar path was natural and the turnover was quick. On the front squats I went deep, way below parallel to improve mobility at the same time. Utilized the bounce at the bottom on some sets. I was afraid the jerks would be the most difficult part and it probably was but I was efficient there too. My dip and drive part was effective enough to get the barbell overhead with a good lockout.
This was the first time I got to 90kg. I think I had something left in my tank at this point. My elbows were getting a little sore after all the jerking around so I stayed at this weight. There was another round of reps ahead of me. On the second round I got to 85kg as prescribed. On both rounds I felt like I could have still moved the barbell. At this stage my elbows were definitely kindly asking me to stop so I listened and saved a little for future.
This was very encouraging complex work for me. The weights were heavy for this kind of complex. Unfortunately I couldn't take a video of the work put in.
Sunday. Skills, 3 rds of: 4 strict hspu, 4 kipping hspu, 40 du. Strength, back squat 3x5 (across 120kg). Metcon, 2-4-6-8-10-12-14, deadlifts (100kg), pull-ups. Time 8.20
Training day after a rest day. Always loving a comeback after taking it easier for a day. We hit the gym with Pauliina and to no one's surprise the gym was empty. During the entire weekend there had been something like 10 people in 3 days. Midsummer day is not the day for a regular Joe to go and do a workout on his own. Anyway, my skills part was a little different this time, then I did back squat 5's and finally metcon was all about pulling hard.
Skills. For quality
3 rounds of:
4 strict handstand push-ups
4 kipping handstand push-ups
40 double unders
Usually my skills training is a little different. This time I thought about making it more like a metcon but for quality, not for time. I took very short warm-up (should have taken longer though, not smart to rush on that portion) and went inverted against the wall. Those hspu's felt heavier because of my joints were not as well activated yet as I'd like them to be.
Anyway the idea was to do 8 handstand push-ups, then hit 40 double unders. I did hspu's in 4-4 style, first strict reps and then used kip to finish it off. I got 2/3 round unbroken on the double unders. Second round was 30 ub and then a miss, first and last were perfect.
Strength.
Back squat 5-5-5 (all sets @ 120kg)
I touched the barbell, went through my traditional warm-up be doing clean pulls, hang cleans, front and back squats, presses in front and back rack. Then loaded the bar little by little, starting from 5x60, 5x80, 3x100kg, to finally reaching my set weight @ 120kg. Then completed 3 sets of 5 reps at this weight.
Hundred kilos was light, but all the sets with 120kg were tough. I was wondering after the first set how I could nail those remaining sets as 5's. I was thinking about scaling the reps and/or kilos because I didn't want any misses. Taking this into consideration I am very satisfied I stayed with the original plan and was able to get all those sets done with mental strength.
Metcon. Time 8.16
2-4-6-8-10-12-14 of:
Deadlifts, 100kg
Pull-ups
I got inspired by NC Lab to do this workout. They combined deadlifts and wall balls which would have probably been a it smarter decision =) Having deadlifts and pull-ups was a killer on my forearms. It was all pulling back and forth, with a barbell or on a pull-up bar. The weight itself on deads was not heavy but during the course of the workout it starts to feel nasty because of those ripped forearms.
I went unbroken on deads up to the round of 10's. On 12's I cut it in half and same with the last round. Pull-ups were the tougher part of this workout. Those reps shouldn't be a case at all but the combination of these two was surprising. Pull-ups went unbroken up to 8's. The last 3 sets were cut in pieces (6-4, 6-3-3, 5-3-3-3).
It was a tough workout, no doubt. It destroyed my forearms for sure. It wasn't that bad on breathing because I had to start piecing it out towards the end. Had I been moving all the time, it would have been a different thing. On the other hand, that is very encouraging that I can recover pretty decently during a workout if I have to have a break here and there.
Time to recover. My body feels great, it's been awesome to get back on track with heavier training. We tend to celebrate midsummer in Finland at this time of the year. It's kind of a "nightless night", the nights near the midsummer day are short or pretty much non-existent. It's a cool factor living in Finland. We drove to the lake in central Finland to hang out with some friends and chill out in good company. It was beautiful lake-side scenery at a summer cottage. We spent the day there yesterday and drove back home today.
I reckoned it's okay to take one day off because it's been a while since my previous rest day and I slept just a little last night. I'll take it easier today and hit it again tomorrow. Here are some videos posted by Crossfit.com for us crossfit dudes to enjoy.
Word!
Couple of pictures from the summer cottage scenery. I'll take that scene any day. Thanks for our host and hostess Katri and Olli for taking care of the big entourage! I'll bet everyone enjoyed their stay!
Friday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Barbell, every 30sec: 1 squat clean @ 90kg, for 10min. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 5 hspu, 10 t2b, 15 box. Result, 275 reps.
We're heading to central Finland today for midsummer celebration but I had time to sneak to the gym in the morning to torture my body one more time before departure. Some skills to begin with, then heavy clean emom and finally a test of fitness in form of 15min amrap of bodyweight movements.
Skills.
Ring muscle-ups
I took a double in the beginning without false grip, then 1-2 singles in the same style and the last 1-2 reps were false grip reps. It felt old all the way. I had to change the style in the end because it started to feel so heavy without false grip.
Barbell.
Every 30 seconds, perform 1 squat clean @ 90kg, for 10min
I decided to get back where I was with my cleans before the american trip. So that's why I have intentionally taken a lot of cleans in the past 2 weeks. Today I did it emom style, every half a minute completed one squat clean at a quite heavy weight. 90kg is no joke for me if I have to do them without that much rest. I knew there would be no problem but I mean I got to respect this weight and be grateful I can move it pretty well even though it's heavy-ish.
Metcon. Result, 275 reps (9 rounds + 5 hspu)
15min amrap of:
5 handstand push-ups
10 toes-to-bar
15 box jumps, 61cm
I wanted to have a traditional metcon in my system and really see if I can keep my body moving throughout the workout. That's why the movements and reps per movements were as you see above. I can do 5hspu, 10 t2b and 15 box whenever I want. But the real question is how can I do them when I've already done like 5 rounds. The answer seemed to be: well. At least today my pace remained consistent and I was able to push through the demons telling me to slow down. I didn't listen to those guys but just kept pushing through. My result in the end was 9 full rounds and 5 handstand push-ups on the 10th round. Totalling 50 hspu, 90 t2b and 135 box. I'm happy, now I can take it easy and go pack our car =)
Thursday. Clean and jerk complex, 7 sets of: 1 squat clean + 3 jerks (max 90kg). Burpees, 30sec on, 30sec off, for 7min. Result, 12 reps per set.
I don't seem to get tired of working my strength to next level with barbells. Putting weights overhead is a great feeling after a successful lift. Doesn't matter which movement it is but having a barbell loaded with plates and having it with straight arms brings satisfaction beyond words. Today it was turn to work on clean and jerks in a bar complex style. It took its taxes and I felt hammered after that. I only took some burpee sprints in the end.
Barbell complex.
7 sets of: 1 squat clean + 3 split jerks
Weights at 60, 70, 80, 82.5, 85, 87.5, 90kg
I felt good on these lifts. Foam rolling and mobility in the beginning to get myself going. Took some empty bar and 40kg warm-up lifts before making it to 60kg. I felt more shaky in this weight compared to heavier ones =) Squat clean was easy on all lifts. I had the barbells on my fingertips only on the clean and then re-adjusted the bar as I stood up and bounced the bar up to get a good grip.
From 70kg on the lifts were identical in my opinion. I focused well on each set and had good jerks at all reps. I believe my hip work - dip and drive - were good today and I simply felt very confident all the way. Before walking to the gym I thought it would be nice to throw around weights at around 80kg. After having taken that first set at this weight I realized there's more room to go up. So I kept adding 2.5kg after every set.
I can't say the last set was light. But I want to believe there was still air to making it heavier. I wanna keep adding strength on overhead strength so more jerks are ahead of me.
Bodyweight.
30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, for 7 minutes:
Burpees
Result 12 reps every set
I took some double unders at this stage but it felt like my shins were aching and shoulders were also somehow painful so I skipped it pretty soon. I had some jump rope action in my mind but I changed it on the fly and took burpee intervals. Nice… I set the timer in front of me and started moving up and down.
30 second intervals, as many reps as possible in this time frame. With a running clock, recover for the rest of the minute, then start again. Repeat for a total of 7 minutes. I had time to complete 12 burpees in every set. That was the best pace I was able to go for today. It felt a little worse by the round but I had it locked up in my mind to stick to the 12 burpees after first round.
I'm happy I was able to maintain that speed all the way. Looking from the side it probably looked the same. In the inside it felt different the longer the minutes went on. But I pushed the feeling aside and kept moving. It was a total of 86 reps during this intervals.
Wednesday. Strength, back squat (max 130kg). Workout, every 2:00: complete 10 ohs (40kg) + 10 c2b. Repeat for 8:00 / 4 rds.
Finally! Back squats, c'mon!!! I've been missing you guys a lot. We were in the States 12-26th May and after that I had that problem with my hip flexors so it's been way over a month since I've had big loads in my back for squatting purposes. I took couple of sets, maxing out on this current condition. For a metcon I took a workout that focused on my weaknesses. Not that tough on my lungs but more on my strength.
Definitely worth a shot!
Strength.
Back squat 3x100, 115, 120, 125kg, 2x130kg, 3x120kg
I took some slow motion squats, pause squats and regular squats with 60 and 80kg barbell. After that I started counting my sets. Okay, 100kg was still light but let's count it anyway. I decided to jump to 115kg, took another triple, and went up with 5kg leaps. I wanted Joni to back me up just in case on the set of 125kg because it's been so long time since hitting it heavy on back squats. This set went on nicely, the last one was a battle though. Next stop at 130kg. I took the first one on my own, and on the second rep Joni secured it slightly. By the way, he's the best spotter I've ever met. He somehow let's you do all the work, he just makes sure you're pushing it the right way by directing your body path right upwards.
I've once taken 3x140kg so I need to get back on my squat program to get them strong. My goal is still to hit double bodyweight squat. At a bodyweight of about 82kg I'd be happy with 160kg for 1 rep max. I haven't had any issues with my hip flexors and if everything is good after this day too I'll guarantee to squat more.
The nature of this workout was a little different. Very much scaled version of the CF Open workout 14.2 from 2014. The loads were bigger that time. My goal was to target two of my weaknesses: overhead squats and chest-to-bar pull-ups. Currently both of these movements are much more familiar than they used to some time ago, no doubt, but there's still work to do.
High-rep overhead squats is the thing. Okay, I can do Nancy with unbroken ohs (total 5x15 ohs @ 40kg) but somehow I feel like I should be more efficient and able to recover faster after a set like 10-15 reps with 40kg / 95lbs. Going heavier on ohs brings different kind of issues with mobility, it doesn't feel that natural anymore. This means only one thing: more work. I met a new crossfitter at the gym today. It was one good experience. He had the most beautiful snatch balances I've ever witnessed with bare eye. The speed under bar and his hip mobility were freaking awesome. It was awesome to chit chat about crossfit for quite a while. Hopefully we're able to hit a workout together some day.
I still remember it was difficult to link c2b's together. I found it difficult to keep my body moving. Instead I had to kind of do them as singles. Even though at the same time I was able to do 30-40 normal pull-ups in a row. So at some point I started doing chest-to-bars every single day for warm-up. I probably haven't written about it but I took them every day, strict c2b's, just a couple but the point was I took 'em every day. And every now and then they were part of a metcon. So now the situation is way different and I can take couple of tens reps in a workout. That's real progress for me.
Tuesday. Snatch singles (40-60kg). Clean emom workout with ascending ladder (up to 102.5kg). Shuttle run, 5 sets at max effort of: 10-10-20-10-10-20m sprints.
I went to work a little later today and took the opportunity to spend the morning in Eltsu, one of my favorite training spots. It's quite common I do some sort olympic lifts there and today was no exception. Had to take some snatches before moving on to cleans. I ended the session with some taxing short sprints.
My goal walking in to the cave was to practice on my squat snatch and go as far as I could go. I was able to go to squat at about 55kg, and from then on I had no options but to lift them as power snatches. I think it's some sort of mental barrier of having the courage to drop under the barbell.
I'm not that satisfied with how my lifts differ from each other. This movement must be considered as a weakness of mine. However, I ain't gonna put my focus too much on this one because then it would suck the training time from everything else.
In the past I might have stopped lifting if I get a fail or two in the end. Now I've taken another a different approach so that the last lifts must be successful ones. Don't ever walk away with failed lifts, make it a good one with lighter weights if you can't take the heavier ones up.
Recap of snatches
Clean. Up to 102.5kg
Every minute on the minute, build up to a heavy single
Start at 60kg, add 5kg every minute. After 80kg add 2.5kg every minute
Start with doubles, continue with singles after 90kg
This was a great one. Climbing up the ascending ladder of squat cleans. I took doubles in the beginning, then after 80kg I changed them to singles. The weights started from 60kg and increased 5kg / 2.5kg per minute. More in the beginning, less in the end because the weighs get so much heavier.
I felt pretty solid on these cleans. I took every rep through a squat clean and these lifts were pretty similar. I'm happy on the way I was able to walk this through. And I was able to climb up to 102.5kg. This was my last attempted lift and I got it. Very satisfied on these cleans.
Cleans
Sprints.
5 working sets at max effort
Shuttle run 10-10-20-10-10-20m
Somehow I recalled a "full gasser, performed on a football field. Running sprints from sideline to sideline. I wanted to have something like that in my training day. I solved the problem by running at the indoor track for sprints between 10 and 20 meters, you'll see it better from the video. My butt hurt a lot after this session as I walked to the parking lot. It was definitely worth taking this kind of running into the training catalogue!
Monday. Row intervals, 5rds of: 600m moderate, 60sec rest, 100m max effort, 100m easy, 100m max effort, 100m easy. Ring skills in the end.
I've had a lot of barbells or kettlebells in my hands in the past training days so it was good to leave them alone for a day and concentrate in rowing. That is one king movement. This is something a man should have as an element on a weekly basis, rowing intervals. I also took some ring skills after getting my lungs burst out.
Row intervals. Total 5.000m
5 rounds of:
600m moderate pace (1.45-1.50)
60sec rest
100m max effort (1.29-1.38)
100m easy (2.10-2.15)
100m max effort (1.29-1.38)
100m easy (2.10-2.15)
This is taken directly from NCLab. That is Norcal Crossfit's site that offers a training plan for crossfit athletes looking to make it to the Games. With that said, you understand their daily workouts are sick. Chris Hinshaw is a remarkable endurance coach for these athletes too. Jason Khalipa, Miranda Oldroyd, Garrett Fisher, Pat Barber and the rest of the crew to mention a couple of names. These guys are something I look up to as athletes. If they publish a run / row / swim / skierg workout you better believe it's gonna kick you in the ass.
I've done couple of these in the past and this was a great one too! I had no doubts at any stage though. There was a 5k total of rowing in 5 cycles of 1.000m distances. What should the pace be like on each of these 3 phases? Hinshaw described it in the workout, I posted a picture of it below. My pace on the 600m row was somewhere between 1.45 and 1.50. The first 1-2 sets were faster, from then on I had to grit my teeth get the digits to stay sub 1.50. But I stayed, a mental decision.
Max effort pace was around one thirty and something. Mostly at around 1.35. In the beginning the pace was about 1.30 and the last round was even sub 1.30. On the easy part I took it very slow, just basically kept moving the boat but there was no ambition to go faster.
The thing in this workout was definitely the 600m row. I was glad every time it was over. It was the only distance after which I got to stand up for a while and reset my mental game. Max efforts were quick so even though it was max effort it wasn't that bad. After these 100m max efforts / easy parts were over there was no rest / recovery but I had to start rowing for that 600m distance again. That really sucked. I decided I'll try to keep the pace at the same level each round and that made me think about a happy place at times.
Ring skills.
Skin the cat
Front level progressions
I played around with the rings for a while just for the fun of it. Skin the cats and front level progressions. Those front levels are sick stuff. Can't do them right now because there's lack of proper body control so I took some progressions with one knee tucked in. It was a cool short session with the rings, liked it! Here's a short video of what skin the cat means.
Sunday. Skills, ring muscle-ups. Strength, ohs 10-10-10-10-10 (across 50kg). Metcon, 3rds of: 10 hspu, 20 pistols, 30 pull-ups. Time 12.57
We went to downtown Helsinki with the family in the morning for a stroll, lunch and frozen yogurts for dessert. Great Sunday I got to say! Then in the early evening it was time to hit the gym with Pauliina. Plus it's freaking awesome to have the soccer championship on, having great games showing in TV around the clock, love it.
I felt fresh in the morning even though it's been a tough training streak lately. I've intentionally increased the amount of weights and I'm feeling good under a heavy barbell, not matter if it's squat, clean, jerk or snatch. Today I took a crossfit.com workout from couple of days ago, 5x10 reps overhead squats. Before that I took couple of reps muscle-ups on rings for warm-up. Finally the metcon was sick, a creation of my own, a triplet of bodyweight movements.
Skills.
Ring mucsle-ups
Took couple of reps with false grip just to remind my body how it's done. No problem there, I got the reps done easily. Well, easy is maybe a little exaggeration but I had no issues with them anyway. I was thinking about playing around with the rings
Maybe a little too high for a regular pull-up?
Strength.
Overhead squats 10-10-10-10-10 (all sets @ 50kg)
Overhead squats are something I don't do that often. There's no obvious reason, I guess I've just found so much other things to work on. I felt good having the bar overhead and squatting. One negative side there is on this movement. My wrists tend to get sore during the reps. For longer sets like this it sometimes becomes very disturbing. And smaller sets with heavier weights brings the same issues.
The weight itself moved pretty well in my opinion. And I found a good path way below parallel to get all those 50 reps done with style. I took the barbell from ground this time as there was another guy back squatting in the rack. This weight was not that heavy so it wasn't bad to throw it in my back rack before jerking it overhead.
Overhead squats
Metcon. Time 12.57
3 rounds of:
10 handstand push-ups
20 pistol squats, alternating
30 pull-ups
You probably realized the movements are same with benchmark workout Mary. The difference is that Mary is 20min amrap of the triplet with 5-10-15 reps in the same order. I doubled the reps just to test my fitness in a different method. The nature of the workout was definitely different with this kind of high-rep sets.
I got handstand push-ups unbroken on the first and second round, then dropped from the wall after 7 reps on the last round before making it a full ten reps. These went surprisingly well. Of course the first round was easy as the workout just started but I thought second round might have been tougher. I'm glad I got them done well there too.
Pistol squats are always kind of tough but I get them done. It's a strange movement. It starts to feel challenging but I always get the rep done when I drop down and try to come back up. There's a clear difference between the mobility in my legs. I can go ass-to-grass on my left leg and coming back up from there is way easier than my right leg. And I can't just drop down and bounce back up, I got to squat with a slower pace and in a more controlled way than on my left side.
It was not a surprise that the pull-ups turned out to be the most challenging element in the one. Going for 30 reps each round was something I wasn't looking forward to. I tried to think about it one rep at a time. And decided to cut it to pieces from the very beginning. On the first round I went 10-10-10, it was manageable in all tens. On the second one it was 12-10-8 and every attempt was a fight. The last set of 30 reps was quite miserable =) I took a 10, then 5-4 and the last 11 reps was triples and doubles. I tried to make the recovery as short as possible after dropping down.
The training session was once again good. I'm happy on the way I've been able to program the workouts by myself and keep on grinding on a daily basis. Got to keep it as variable as I possibly can. I want to focus on certain things but mostly I try to build up an all-around athlete that can perform at a decent level on any possible fitness element.
Saturday. AM: Eltsu. Strength, clean & jerk, clean, front squats. Metcon, Kalsu as a team of 2: 100 power clean (60kg), emom 5 burpees. Time 9.50.
PM: Haaga. Strength, build up to a heavy single (not max), result 200kg. Emom, 2 deads @ 160kg, for 4min. Metcon, 21-15-9, t2b, burpee, power snatch (40kg), box. Time 12.51.
In the morning Juuso came to pick me up and drove us to Eltsu. There was a hullabaloo going on as some sort of athletics competition was going outdoors for little kids. Track and field competition. There were hundreds of people but luckily there were all outdoors on the track. On the cave there were just about 2 guys in addition to us. It was time for some oly lifting! After eating, relaxing and mobility session Pauliina suggested to hit the gym again so who am I to say no to a workout, let's go!
Strength.
Clean and jerk 3x60, 3x70, 3x80, 2x90kg, 1x90, 1x90kg
Clean 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 (all @ 90kg)
Front squat 3x80, 3x100, 3x110, 3x115, 1x120, 1x25kg
We were both supposed to squat yesterday but were obliged to change plans as I wrote in the previous post. Because we came to Eltsu it's impossible to ignore olympic lifts because of the possibility to drop weights. Go heavy because of this possibility. We both did some clean & jerks to start with, Juuso got a new PR lift of 70kg, c'mon, congrats man!
I haven't jerked this big weights in a while so it felt good to get some good numbers on the board. It was kind of fun that the clean part felt heavier than the jerk at 90kg. That's the reason why I wanted to work on my cleans for a while after c&j.
I took at least 8 reps @ 90kg. I didn't mark my lifts up but I recall making 5 single reps in a row, dropping the weight in between, resetting and doing my thang. After a break I took another triple by dropping the bar and resetting. So I did at least 8 reps, could have been more, not sure.
After cleaning and jerking the bar we wanted to get some squats in our system. Because I had already squat cleaned the bar for a number of reps it felt natural to do front squats, and I headed for triples, and went on by feeling. It was a good grind and I got through the set of 115kg, felt very good. That was close to my limits so I decided to take a single lift @ 120kg. It felt good so I added five more kilos to reach 125kg single rep. The strength part was great and it felt good to go to a little heavier weights this time.
Recap of Eltsu strength training
Metcon. Time 9.50
Kalsu as a team of 2 with power cleans
100 power clean, 60 / 50kg
Every minute on the minute, both complete 5 burpees
At this stage our bodies were quite wrecked but we were not done. We started throwing around ideas for a team workout. After a short brainstorming we ended up with cleans and burpees. It turned out to be Kalsu - style workout. Kalsu is rx'd 60kg thrusters, 100 reps for time, with 5 burpees on top of every minute. We changed thrusters to power cleans and did the same rep amount as a team. It served our training purpose well.
I had 60kg on the bar, whereas Juuso had another barbell at 50kg. Those weights suited us well at this stage of the training session. Start the clock, perform 5 burpees every minute and then you have the rest of the minute time to do as many power cleans as possible. Juuso started the cleans and handed the turn to me at around 30-40sec in to the minute. So we got time to do one round of power cleans per minute.
Team Kalsu
So actually it was something like an emom workout all the way. Both completed 5 burpees on top of every starting minute and then Juuso did his power cleans, and finally it was my turn to do my power cleans. After dropping the bar there was something like 5-10sec left in the clock so we waited for those and went straight to burpees as the minute changed. In the beginning it felt light but in the middle of the workout the nature changed and it got way harder. Breathing got heavier for sure.
PM Strength.
Deadlift, build up to a heavy single (not max)
5x100, 5x140, 5x160, 1x180, 1x200kg
We went to the home gym in the evening and luckily there was no smells due to the sewage work yesterday. After getting warmed up I started piling plates on the barbell and pulled it from the ground. Goal was to hit a rather heavy single in the end. I took some 5's in the beginning with 100, 140 and 160kg. After that I decided to make it heavier and did singles at 180kg and 200kg.
After the morning session I had already worked quite a lot today so reaching 200kg in this condition is mind blowing to me. This weight is something I only dreamed about 2 years ago when I first grabbed a barbell as I started crossfit. It's awesome that I was able to move these weights.
Deadlift recap
Barbell.
Every minute on the minute, for 4 minutes
2 deadlifts @ 160kg
After reaching that heavy single I dropped 40kg off the barbell and did a short emom workout, double deads at 160kg, for four minutes / rounds. It felt okay, only my grip was a bit shaky. It felt like it's tearing my fingers to blood. But they stayed good, just got a little sensitive. Nothing special in this one, just wanted to get some doubles done with semi-heavy weights. No need to hit it for an eternity, I just wanted my body to get used to a little heavier deadlifts.
Metcon. Time 12.51
21-15-9
Toes-to-bar
Burpees
Power snatch, 40kg
Box jumps
This was the toughest of the day, hands down, great misery for 12-13 minutes. Inspired from competitorstraining.com, great site. Those snatches ate me alive. T2b's I did unbroken on the first round, had to cut them in 10-5 on the second with just a short break in between, and again unbroken on the last round. They weren't that bad, easiest one of the 4 elements.
Burpees are hmm… What could I say, you know how it is. They always feel bad during a workout. You can move but the pain crawls in at some point. You just gotta push it through, no shortcuts there. It eases at some point. Pace yourself but keep on moving, no need to stop here.
Snatches were the the only barbell movement and thus also the most challenging strength-wise. I'm very happy on how I got them done. First round was probably 10-6-5, second one 9-6 and last one unbroken. Plus my technique was beautiful, at least in my own mind I figured so =) To be honest, they looked similar, from the first one to the last one. That's what I'm most proud of.
Box jumps I usually knock unbroken and today was no exception. On the last round I had one miss, it was a lazy attempt to get on top of the box. I tried to start jumping right after snatches but there was no juice left anymore in my tank so it turned out not to be as explosive as it should. So I concentrated better to finish the set with style.
There was a 10m distance to my barbell compared to the other stations. It was kind of a recovery walk as I transitioned between movements. Maybe I could have saved some time if I had the bar next to me or then I would have gassed myself, I don't know but one thing I do know. This workout was pretty much perfect crossfit.
