Thursday 31.7: Back squat, pair workout with Joni

Thursday. Strength, back squat (max 135kg). Pair workout with Joni. As a team, complete 80 deadlifts (100kg), 100 burpees while other one hold plank position, 80 deadlifts (100kg).

Today was a great training day for sure. In the morning I realized something big regarding olympic lifts and squatting. I was scribbling through Instagram and came across with Chad Vaughn's (@OlyChad) picture where he and posted a battle photo of the legend himself - Chris Spealler - fighting to save a clean in the Crossfit Games this year in the Speed Clean Ladder. He wrote some truths about olympic lifts. With that inspiration in my head I went squatting. Had couple of friends with me at the gym so it was a great training atmosphere to say the least.

Strength. Ass to grass back squats

• 3x90, 110, 120, 130kg
• 1x135, 1x140kg failed
• 5x90kg

What I'm referring with Chad Vaughn is described in the picture below. I have exactly that issue with cleans. I can't get to that position ever. I can pull the bar high enough but my problem is getting myself under the barbell quick enough. I have to drop the bar in the middle of the movement because it feels like I don't have enough time to drop under barbell. Coming up from the hole has never been an issue for me because my clean max loads are so much lower than front squat max loads.

With that in mind I went to the gym determined to try new approach in my squats. Decided to go as low as possible. Not pause squats. Regular squats but doing it with same style as in squat cleans, dropping down ass-to-grass without trying to brake the speed on the way down. I smashed down and then bounced back up and that's the time when I start to use my legs big time. Push it with all you got. At about that time when you bounce back, come back up and you reach parallel level. I found squatting this style very much different to squats where I go just below parallel and then stand back up. Feels like a different movement to say the truth.

I thought the weights would be much further away from my max loads than this. Thought they would be somewhere about 120kg at max. It was an extremely positive signal to realize I was able to knock way heavier weights up and down. The first fail came at 140kg. Didn't want my body to remember that as the last lift so I took an additional 5 reps at lighter weights, easy 90kg.

Metcon. Time 13.54

• As a team, complete the following reps:
• 80 deadlift, 100kg
• 100 burpees. While one athlete does burpees, the other is in plank hold position
• 80 deadlift, 100kg

Joni was squatting with me and it was a success day for him. Back squat PR has seen the daylight, great job man!!! After strength training we put the barbell on the ground, piled up some stuff on it and went after a pair workout. Main focus on deadlifts and burpees. Pair workouts are somehow motivational for sure. When you have that training partner beside you, there's a guy to share the feeling with you right on the moment.

We completed deadlift sets on 8 rep-sets all the way. Did them unbroken all the way. We were wondering about the reps and weights for a while and in the end we gotta say these numbers turned out to be perfect for metcon purposes. We kept a good steady and consistent pace in the deadlifts in the beginning and in the end likewise. No need to rest between sets. The period when you caught your breath the other guy was pumping those deads unbroken.

We decided in advance to knock the burpees in sets of 10 reps. While Joni was doing his sets of burpees my role was not to just chill out because that rest period would have been too long and the intensity would have decreased too much. So I was supposed to hold a plank position in the meanwhile. And vice versa of course. That plank hold turned out to be quite horrible. We both figured it would be a walk in the park (not really) but it was disastrous. Can you believe me if I say burpees were the rest in this workout? Well, they definitely were.

Joni is done

It was a good workout for sure! It was great to throw down with Joni for this one. We haven't done many pair workouts in the past even though we hang in there couple of days a week. Thanks for this one dude. Another huge thing was that my pal Jouni was at the gym doing his third crossfit workout. Today I put him to a dark place with the following workout:

• 1.000m row, then 3rds of:
• 20 burpees
• 20 thrusters
• 20 sit-ups, then:
• 1.000m row

For a guy who hasn't done crossfit this is uncomfortable stuff indeed. He dug deep but he finally saw the sunlight and was cheering for making it till the end with pride. And his face looked like he felt like a champion. I'm proud of this guy for manhandling this workout!!!