Tuesday 26.8: Cleans, Front squat, "Black and Blue"

Tuesday. Strength, cleans 3-3-3-3-3 (mostly at 95kg), front squats 4-4-4-4 (110-115kg). Metcon, Black and Blue, 5 rds of: 10 power clean (60kg), 10 burpees. Time 7.31

Another great training day! I was looking eagerly for getting my hands on barbell with the intention of heavy cleans. What suits perfectly with squat cleans is front squat as my legs are already warmed up and it's easy to put some load on and hit couple of sets squatting. The metcon was a nerve-racking idea. Got the idea from Competitorstraining.com where I saw this one some weeks ago. Toni had also done this one sometime in July.

Lots of veggies getting ready!

Strength.

• Cleans 3-3-3-3-3 (90, 95, 95, 95, 95kg)
• Front squat 4-4-4-4 (110, 115, 115, 110kg)

This was something I was looking forward to. Heavy sets of triples on the cleans, naturally squat cleans as the weights got bigger. These were not touch'n'go style which I usually prefer. This time I took singles, dropped the bar, reset, and took another lift. Three in a row, then some rest before hitting another set. Total of 5 sets. First set was at 90kg, the remaining of them with 95kg.

I'm extremely happy on the way I was able to perform today. Often when I go over 90kg they tend to be singles because the load is simply to heavy for multiple rep sets. There might have been one case where I did 2 reps in emom workout with 90kg. Other than that this was probably the second time I got this many heavy reps in my system in any other way than singles. And my technique stayed solid all the way. Don't remember there would have been any awkward lifts during these sets. Below is one clip with 95kg.

3x95kg cleans

Front squats are somehow a natural continuance to squat cleans. I've done this combo couple of times. I need my legs to be prepared for squats and in this way they always seem to be well prepared. Took a double at 100kg just to make sure my legs are ready to hit it. That was an easy double so I took it up to 110kg for a triple. That was tougher but there was still room to up it. It was time to adjust the bar to 115kg and go for another set. That was challenging as my 4th rep was some sort of battle. That's why I decided to stay with the same load and repeat. Last one was again with 110kg because I didn't wanna miss a rep. That was then a bit too light. These 110-115kg bars were good for my purposes.

Metcon. Black and Blue, time 7.31

• 5 rounds of:
• 10 power clean, 60kg
• 10 burpees

This was a bit intimidating at first. I saw a video of this posted by Ben Bergeron in his site competitorstraining.com. It was in the first days of July and it caught my attention right away. We talked it over with Toni back then and he went after this one pretty soon. He told me it went way up in his category of bad ass workouts. No wonder. It's simple and beautiful. I could see this one burning lungs big time.

I was about to scale this one to 5 cleans and 10 burpees but then again, I fought that thought away in seconds. No point in doing that. Couldn't find anything good in that version. My legs were pretty hammered from the strength portion, that's why this popped into my mind for a second or two. Fortunately I did this rx'd!

This is how it should look like

On the cleans I went unbroken on the first round, then the remaining rounds it was 5-5 in each set. I'm in the transition stage whether to use hook grip or regular grip. On this one I figured my forearms are gonna burn so I ended up in hook grip. And it must have been a good call since my forearms felt okay all the way. Burpees are burpees. What can you say? =) Love and hate relationship still exists. They make me breath heavily, and burn legs, shoulders and arms. After them power cleans are not that tempting but that's what you're gonna do anyway. So just grab the bar and suck it up. You're gonna feel like a king after the workout.

This was classic crossfit. I liked it a lot. It hurt but you could still keep moving. My time was 7.31 which means to say my work time as such was okay but occasionally I had to stop to breath. Practically it was the transitions between the two movements where I tried to cool down the breathing.