Wednedsday 23.7: Muscle-ups, Bench, Cardio

Wednesday. Skills, muscle-ups. Strength, narrow grip bench press 5x10 (max 75kg). Cardio, crosstrainer, 30sec on, 30sec off, for 10min.

I'm going to work for later in the afternoon so I had a chance to do a workout as I dropped Pauliina to work in the morning. This was an easier session because of that leg of mine I wrote about. It can't take hit so I got to do a lighter workout until it's fully recovered. Took muscle-ups in the beginning, then something I haven't done in months: bench press =) And finally I needed to get my lungs to work so I took crosstrainer intervals.

Skills.

• Muscle-ups

It's been a while since I last time did muscle-ups. I took one single rep right after coming back from Spain but the time before that was way back. It was a bit nerve-racking to get a grip on those rings before the first rep. I nailed them pretty efficiently (in my standards) and there was no doubt to get the reps done. There are lots of deficiencies as I look at it on the video.

My torso doesn't look to be controlled that well, it's not one tight combination which hinders the utilization of aggressive swing of the movement. Also the swing backwards is too short and I can't get any momentum of it. My hips do not raise that high vertically and I have to use a lot of upper body strength to nail the rep. But the most important thing is: I can get them done! It was a long process to get muscle-ups in my skills repertoire and I'm enjoying every single one of them =)

Strength.

• Narrow grip bench press 5x10 (50, 60, 65, 70, 75kg)

I'm already looking forward to squat! It's about time. I still need to be patient and not be a fool. Let's get these legs recovered and then I'll nail some squats. Bench press is kind of a boring movement for me but from time to time it's okay to do this too. I tried this version of bench probably for the first time, narrow grip bench press. Weights were somewhat lighter and there was definitely not a purpose of hitting max weights. More like getting some work done in my system.

This felt different than regular bench. Well, no surprise, you have different width in the grip so it focuses on different muscles. The last 2 sets felt heavy for me but they were manageable.

Cardio.

• 30sec on, 30sec off, for 10min of crosstrainer

This was a compromise I had to take. Rowing would have been cool in the end or actually metcon was something I wanted to do but this calf needed some softer action. There's a crosstrainer at our gym so it felt like a perfect solution to get heart beat up, get the body work and not worry about having pain in my calf. In the end, I'm very satisfied to this decision!