Went to the gym early in the morning. As I anticipated my legs were smoked. Did some technique work in the beginning and then a longer metcon with modest pacing. In the afternoon only bench presses, short session.
Yeah, messy notes but it reminded me what to do next in the metcon =)
Oly.
Clean
Snatch
There were barely weight on the barbell. It was either an empty or 40kg barbell all the way. This was mostly concentrating on pause cleans at different phases of the bar path. I believe there is something to this drill that might make a big difference in the long run. Probably the most significant thing with which I have got gains on the snatch technique has been to cut the movement in pieces and do high pulls too.
Metcon.
3 rounds of:
5 bar muscle-ups
10 power cleans, 60kg
15 burpees
20 kettlebell swings, 24kg
25 ghd sit-ups
30 double unders
400m row
Long workout. It took something like 8-9 minutes per round to complete. In the first round my body didn't react too well for the muscle-ups. Those felt heavier than normally. On the second and third round I got them rocking much better.
Power cleans were quick singles in every round. Very smooth in my opinion. However, they got me breathing heavily, especially after jumping right on to 15 burpees. That was a nice combination. I paced myself on those, didn't rush at all but kept the body moving all the time.
Swings were unbroken, the weight was only 24kg so that was kind of no-brainer. Ghd's were quite easy. Yesterday I found out that the happiness to good double unders is to foam roll shins before the jump rope action. Today I did the same trick and du's worked well. Had one miss in one of the sets but I'm very happy on the du's!
Rowing was modest pace all the way. Also the transitions were not the fastest. The purpose of this workout was to keep heart rate under control from the very beginning. Good workout.
Strength.
Bench press 5x3 @ 90kg (first set 5 reps)
After eating twice and sleeping in between I went to the gym again to do bench for strength. After a lengthy warm-up I climbed up to 90kg at which I did 5 sets. The first was 5 reps, the rest were triples. All across @ 90 kilos.
Another early morning workout. This time the night sleep was lengthy, and I felt much better when waking up. We have been focusing on getting more sleep on a daily basis and it's paying off. I feel much more energetic during the day. This has been a good trend lately. It still requires more warm-up in the very morning workouts to get mentally and physically fully prepared.
Overhead.
Push press 4x6 @ 70kg
Part of the progression. I have now gone with this "program" for 4 full weeks. Twice a week. Started at 4x10, 3x10, 2x10, 1x10. Then same amount of sets but weight increased and reps decreased to 8's. Now it's time to go for 6's. Today's load was 70kg.
Damned the bar felt heavy even with an all-around warm-up prior to touching the bar. At 40-50kg the bar felt much heavier =) Once I had pushed 60kg for couple of reps I decided I wouldn't go for a heavier single before the first working set but started the first one when climbing up. Felt okay. A bit shaky but still rather solid. My shoulders and triceps took these well but for some reason it didn't feel as smooth in the front rack when I dropped the bar from overhead as normally.
Metcon. Result, 4 rounds + 150m row
10min amrap of:
300m row
20 double unders
15 wall ball shots, 9kg
Going for bodyweight elements purely equals to heavy breathing. There's usually not much room for recovery and leaning elbows on knees. Or at least there shouldn't be. It's a different thing if there's barbells included or high level skills such as muscle-ups. This was rowing, double unders and wall balls.
My plan was to get a steady pace throughout the workout. Rowing was faster than if it was a longer distance. I kept the damper setting somewhere between 8-10, depending on the round. I've been neglecting double unders as those have not rolled as I want to. That's not the correct way to attack weaknesses for sure =) They usually hurt in my shins for some reason. Box jumps don't but jump rope does. Sick. I reasoned foam rolling my shins would make a difference, and that definitely did! Felt great jumping around.
Wall balls were good, made my legs burn a bit. Nice combination mixing it with rowing. That really brought fatigue in to my legs. This workout definitely felt in my legs and breathing. Good one.
Accessory.
Reverse hypers 3x10 @ 20, 30, 40kg
Barbell row 3x10 @ 60, 70, 80kg
At first I thought about getting back home to recover but then this hit me from somewhere. Took couple of sets of both reverse hypers and rows with a barbell. I'm not sure if I did the rows correctly. This was how I felt like it needs to be done. I've done them with dumbbells for couple of times. That's more natural for me. This was probably the first time I did this with a barbell. Reverse hypers feel like a great accessory element. Especially after squats. Today I piled some weight on the system and tried how it feels. Awesome for posterior chain development.
Squats.
Back squats
5x120, 125, 130kg
3x132.5, 135kg, 2x137.5kg
1x140, 142.5, f 145kg
Front squat
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes of:
5 front squats @ 90kg touch'n'go
Afternoon session was all about squatting. First back squats and then front squats to murder my legs totally. Had to flush it with cycling for 10 minutes on a stationary bike. That felt like the best cycling piece ever. I did lots of mobility, stretching and then that cool down. Without those I probably wouldn't walk anymore. My legs are gone already now in the evening. I'm anticipating they are sore as hell tomorrow.
My plan was to do back squats. Built it up little by little. Even though I wasn't able to build up close to my max load, I'm still happy due to Sunday's and Monday's volume of lunges and workouts in general. Especially those lunges made my legs sore big time. Plan was to do 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1. Last set of the triples was so damn heavy that I racked the barbell after 2 reps. And the last single had to be assisted up by my spotter.
I wasn't planning on doing front squats initially. However, I took some weight off the bar and left it at 90 kilos. Then took 5 reps for fun, walked around and took another. At that moment I decided to make it something like strength conditioning. Didn't have a clock running as this was created in the spur of the moment while I was doing it. I basically walked around to shake my legs and then returned to the bar. These were touch'n'go style squats which made it more difficult.
It was an early morning workout to kickstart the day. As I'm on a holiday right now my program looks pretty similar each day. I drive my lovely wife to work, then head to the gym right after that at 9.00 in the morning at latest. Then a good warm-up takes place and about 2h session is ahead of me. There's no rush at all. At 11.00 I go back home, eat, relax and take a nap. That's a life changer. I feel alive again after sleeping for a while. Then another session in the afternoon and then get Pauliina back home. Then more food inside of me and recovery for the next day in the best company.
Bodyweight.
Every minute on the minute x 20 minutes
Odd min, 10 pull-ups
Even min, 10 handstand pull-ups
I needed a lot of warm-up to get to this point that I was able to move my body properly. Felt very stiff in the morning. Did rowing for 1k and mobilized a lot, played around with a light barbell for a while before hopping on the pull-up bar.
This was supposed to be a 10 minute emom workout but once I started moving my body woke up nicely and both pull-ups and handstand push-ups started feeling good. It felt only suitable to keep on going and it turned out to be a 20min workout in the end. Pull-ups were too easy. That was a very positive thing now as I think about it.
Hspu's got tougher through the end. Last 2-3 sets were clearly heavier. I'm still very happy on that I was able to complete 100 reps of both pull-ups and hspu's. On pull-ups that's a good volume but for the handstand push-ups it's huge. No matter in what kind of sets it's being done, 100 hspu's is a lot for me.
Oly / Core.
Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
Odd min, 3 squat clean @ 80kg
Even min, 12 toes-to-bar
There was quite a proper time of recovery between the emoms. Had to make sure my body's ready for the second piece. Considering my legs were done already when I woke up today I didn't know how they would react on the cleans. Taking that into consideration this felt great. Went down in 3 x singles each minute. Not an actual break in between. Just dropped the bar and took it up again.
T2b's were surprisingly hard. Well there wasn't a chance I wouldn't do them unbroken but going for maybe additional 2 rounds it would have probably got challenging. Had to adjust my grip and core was also feeling it. Good workout.
Some accessory work in the rmoning. Bicep curls 5x10 reps
Metcon. Result, 162 reps (7 rounds + 6 jerk)
15min amrap of:
2 ring muscle-ups
6 push jerks @ 60kg
14 box jumps
After nap time this was ahead of me. Wanted to have muscle-ups in the game. I thought about what's going to match nicely with this movement. Needed to have some barbell movement. Squats were out of question because my legs are so sore. Shoulder-to-overhead's seemed like a good idea, and they were. Box jumps sealed the deal.
This went very well. In the warm-up jerks felt heavy but then I stopped listening to my head and put the timer on. This weight is not super heavy for sure. Went unbroken on the muscle-ups. That was my goal, and the reasoning behind writing only 2 reps per round. Had I put 3 reps per round they most likely would not have been ub all the way. Actually jerks and box jumps were unbroken too. Just as planned.
Round times were consistent. About 2 minutes per round. First one was 90 seconds, the rest of them about 120 seconds. I finished the 7th round at 11.59, and got enough time to still go after muscle-ups and jerks. As I dropped the barbell overhead clock turned 15:00.
Christmas training. We left home the day before Christmas to spend it together with the family. We visited my pops earlier and then drove to Klaukkala to cool down with Pauliina's parents for the past couple of days. Didn't concentrate in writing the blog this time, hopefully you guys survived =)
Thursday.
Rest day
My upper body was jammed from all the training in the week so it was perfect to have a day off at Christmas Eve. It was a "busy" day anyway with all the traditions taking place. It was a spectacular day as the entire rest of the week spending it in the best company.
Friday.
Metcon,
5 rounds of:
3 rope climbs
450m run
It was going to be lots of outdoor activities while being in Klaukkala. I had pretty much every fitness equipment with me in the trunk of the car. Agenda was totally open. I just went by feeling. Friday was a good shoulder burn in the rope climbs. It was awesome to go for them after a long break. Felt great. Kari ran with me on the run. Had to save some gas for the rope climbs.
Saturday.
Every minute on the minute x 10min: 10 thrusters (40kg)
Metcon, 4 rounds of:
16 overhead walking lunges, 40kg
400m run
This was a two-part training session. It was nice to have Kari and Pauliina train with me outdoors at the yard. There were a lot of lunges completed with the trio. My first piece was thrusters at 40kg. Ten reps per set. Didn't have a timer running at all. It was something like one set per 60 or max 90 seconds. It also got to my shoulders finally, and they got nasty.
Right after that I took a metcon with the same barbell, lunging with it overhead. Went 8 steps down, and 8 steps back. Kept the bar overhead all the time. It was strange to turn around having a bar overhead. With this weight it was okay but having more weight might have felt exotic. Running and lunging made my legs burn and breathing go heavy.
Sunday.
Metcon, 5 rounds of:
20 walking lunges, 45kg barbell in back rack
20 kettlebell snatches, 16kg (10/10 per hand)
Wear a 9kg vest
On Sunday I got a chance to go two-a-day. We got snow on the ground on Saturday. It was pretty freaking awesome to train outdoors in this kind of weather. It was sunny, bright and the air was crispy. Great to breath heavily. My butt and quads were sore from training but I guess today made it's last effect on my lower body to break down. In a good way. I like it when it hurts.
I went to 45kg, put the barbell in my back, and lunged for 20 steps / meters. This was a bit longer distance than I'd normally lunge. It was a bit torturing on my butt and legs. The idea was of course to go unbroken, and I did. Kettlebell was light as that was probably the only thing I didn't have with me on this trip. Kari had this one so I wanted to borrow that one for the workout.
It suited well for this metcon. One-hand snatches, 10 with right hand, then 10 reps with left hand. Total of 5 rounds. This really hurt in my legs and made my breathing go heavy. I liked it a lot. There was a mental side of the wod too with the longer distance of the lunges.
Evening session.
Push press 1x8 (73kg). Did 10 reps
Front squat doubles, 7x2 across @ 120kg
Power clean, 5x3 @ 80kg
In the evening we drove home and I went to the gym because there was some work to be done. Purely a barbell session. I had my overhead progress going on and it was time for that final set of 8's today. One set of 8 reps @ 73kg. And there was the permission of going more than 8 reps if possible. Warm-up was 10x40, 5x50, 3x60, 2x70, 1x80kg. That 80kg press was probably the easiest I've done in the past couple of weeks. Then dropped down the only working set. Got 10 reps on that one which pleased me tremendously.
Even though my lower body and especially quads were killing me I wanted to get real squats done. My back prevented to squat in the past week so I missed them a lot. Did some doubles in front squat. Not super heavy. Felt heavier than they looked. Quite solid sets. In the end couple of sets of light power clean triples. Just to get a good touch on the movement.
Today was a very early training session in the morning. I was surprised how fresh I felt at that time. Okay, body feels a bit hammered but I wasn't tired at all and that was a great signal of having enough time to recover and sleep on holidays. Upper body strength to start with, and then a notch longer workout with easier heart rate.
Strength.
Bench press 6x5 @ 80kg
The effect of all the presses and jerks yesterday were obvious today. I felt it in my shoulders for sure. That's why bench presses were heavier than they usually are. I stayed at relatively light weight in all sets, across 80kg in all sets. No prob in these sets though.
Gymnastics.
Weighted dips 7x3 @ 20kg
Last set as many reps as possible. Result, 7 reps
This has been non-existing for a long time. I figured it suits well with the bench. There was a set of bodyweight dips for a number of reps, then triples at 10kg and 15kg before doing the first working set. Ended up doing 7 sets at this fixed load.
One set of dips
On the last rep I allowed myself to enjoy the moment and do as many reps as possible to finish the dips. My shoulders were shot at this point but still I was able to do 7 reps. Felt good about it.
Metcon. Time, 25.50
4 rounds of:
1.000m row
20 push-ups
10 right hand kettlebell overhead lunges, 16kg
10 left hand kettlebell overhead lunges, 16kg
This workout's purpose was to go steadily with a bit lower heart rate. Rowing was at 1:55 throughout the wod. Push-ups were unbroken. Kettlebell lunges with holding the single kb overhead is something new I wanted to try out. One training pal threw in the idea of overhead lunges so I modified it to this version.
Short recap of metcon
Had no idea what weight might work for its purpose. I grabbed the first kettlebell and started walking with it. It was 16kg all the way. I also tried 2x16kg but that felt a bit difficult considering my shoulder mobility. Got to try them out later on too. I guess those might make a positive impact.
In the end I realized the weight of the kettlebell was too light. These didn't burn as much I had anticipated. Shoulders were strong in this one. Nice little metcon to finish the session.
Tuesday. AM. Push press 2x8 (70kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 15 cal row, 11 front squats (2x15kg db's), 7 hspu. Time, 10.30. Gymnastics, 100 pull-ups. Accessory, upper body strength.
PM. Metcon, 50-35-20 of: t2b and push jerk (40kg). Time, 15.05. Accessory, lower body strength.
Drove Pauliina to work in the morning and headed right away to the gym for a 2h session. Felt a bit scared how my back would handle it. I wrote the programming considering that issue. Only some light front squats were in play today and those didn't feel too good. Everything else went smoothly. In the afternoon I hit another session at the same place. High rep metcon was in main role. Then lower body strength.
Overhead.
Push press 2x8 @ 70kg
Part of the progression for bigger shoulders. Or actually I don't really care whether they get bigger or not but the functionality of them is the main goal. Getting stronger on upper body in order to master olympic lifts better in the future. This was a total of 2 sets at a pre-determined weight at 70 kilos.
Built up to 80kg for warm-up as it has been some sort of tradition this far. Soon I'm supposed to hit sets at around that weight so maybe I'll have to change my approach in the near future. I was still able to go touch'n'go on both of these sets. Felt really good on hitting the sets well.
Presses and pull-ups
Metcon. Time, 10.30
5 rounds of:
15 cal row
11 squats, holding 2x15kg dumbbells in front rack
7 handstand push-ups
This was going to be a great workout. Those squats kinda ruined the purpose of the workout. I should have known better that it puts too much pressure on lower back. But the combination of the elements is great. Let's say my body would have felt fresh, then I could have done this for a 20min amrap with maybe something like 24-16-8 reps of the same movements. Rowing felt like a short distance, that is something to be added somewhat. Squats hurt my back so it hindered me from going at full throttle. Hspu's were good all the way.
Gymnastics.
100 pull-ups
Need to keep the volume on pull-ups high because this is a movement that goes downhill if it's not worked on continuously. This was not for time. The sets were 20-10-20-15-15-10-10 reps. I thought about just working on finding a smooth rhythm and keeping my feet together. It got heavier somewhere after 70 reps. Lats took these well. It was only my hands / palms that felt the burden. There is something funny in these hands as it's sometimes the thing not letting me do more reps or go heavier =)
Accessory.
Bent over row, 4x10, both right and left hand
Now as I'm on vacation and there's not rush out of the gym it's good to utilize the time and do some accessory strength movements. Bent over rows are something I rarely do but I guess these are okay movements anyway. I went 10 reps on right hand, then 10 reps on left hand, and kept a break after those. Repeat for a total of 4 rounds.
Metcon. Time, 15.05
50-35-20 of:
Toes-to-bar
Push jerk, 40kg
Once I got home, it was meal and nap time. These really make a difference for recovery. Body felt fine in the afternoon, better than in the morning. Main thing on this session was the metcon with which I began the session. It was a high rep workout. Total of 105 reps of both jerks and core work. It makes the nature of the wod different when you throw a good bunch of reps in a row.
50-35-20
First set of t2b's were 10-10-5-5 and then triples to the end. Jerks were 5x10 on the first round. Then number of reps for t2b is not huge in this workout but doing them this way really made it feel in my core. Same with the jerks. Load is light, just 40kg but doing them for a long time without real rest is a nice test of muscle endurance.
Second round of t2b's were 5-5-5-5, and then triples till the end. Jerks were 15-10-10. Was able to do bigger sets on jerks all the way. Last round of t2b's were 5-5-5-3-2 reps. Jerks were 13-7. Damned that bar felt heavy on the last reps. Shoulder felt the burn. This was a fun workout.
Accessory.
Lower body strength (quads, hamstrings, glutes)
I took my time to work on leg strength afterwards. Lots of sets on different stations of the gym. More like traditional meathead type of action. I needed this anyway because I wasn't able to squat which was the original plan.
Monday. AM. Metcon, 15-12-9 of: hang power clean (50kg), hspu, burpee. Skills, 5x50 du. Ring skills. PM. Rowing and mobility.
Christmas is coming and I'm having two weeks of free time. My plan is to hit it twice a day on most of the weekdays. On Christmas eve it's gonna be a day off but other than that I'm planning to get the most out of this time. One setback has occurred though. My back is killing me. It's due to those deadlift sets I completed last Thursday… Yes, it's been days since pulling from the ground but my back is still sore.
Metcon.
15-12-9 of:
Hang power clean, 50kg
Handstand push-ups
Burpee
Back definitely was an issue today. I was supposed to meet Toni in Liikuntamylly for a long session but my training partner slept in late =) Morning's agenda was kind of Monday Monster Mash type of workout. Three-piece workout of intervals. That didn't happen because my back thought otherwise. Can you believe that 50kg barbell felt heavy to lift from the ground to hips.
Cleans were better but the first pull was awful and got worse by the round. Hspu's were okay but burpees were also painful. Simply couldn't go further. Had to settle my back for a good 15-20 minutes afterwards.
Skills.
5x50 double unders
Ring skills
Little by little it got better and I wanted to practice on my double under skills. It's been long time since doing them so it was about time. Those were supposed to be part of my workout anyway but this worked well too. On some occasions du's went well but there were lots of misses too. I also used rings for skills training, muscle-ups and dips.
Row.
1.000m row
3min rest
2.000m row
3min rest
3.000m row
Went downtown for a long lunch with some colleagues at noon and then headed back home from where I pretty soon went back to the gym with Pauliina. Didn't wanna pressure my back too much so I sat on the concept2 and went after rowing. 1k + 2k + 3k with 3min rest between distances.
My pace was sub 1:50 on the first, sub 1:55 on the second and sub 2:00 on the last 3k row. At that point my butt was numb already =) This was a good replacement for morning's setback.
Accessory & Mobility. I had plenty of time to stretch and mobilize my joints and muscles. I also did some upper body strength in the form of biceps and triceps. On these sessions where I have extra time it might be useful to hit some of this type of accessory work. I know for a fact that having these muscles stronger would transfer to oly lifts too. That's the reasoning behind it.
Saturday's training session was an easier one. Only one metcon. My back felt as stiff as it could be after those heavier deadlifts on Friday. Even though they felt good when I did them, the following days are often the moments when I feel like something had been pulled from the ground. Another reason for taking it easier was schedule. We were going to celebrate one family member's 70 year birthday party. It was a blast, these people are great!
Winter War, Event 3. Result, 142 reps
10min amrap of:
20 cal row
15 wall ball
10 box jump overs
2/4/6/8… muscle-ups, ascending ladder
Winter War is a throwdown which aims to find the fittest in Finland. There are a total of 4 qualification events of which the 32 fittest will be called to the competition in February. The events are:
Event 1.
8min amrap:
10 thruster, 50kg
10 thruster, 60kg
10 thruster, 70kg
10 thruster, 80kg…
Event 2.
4min amrap:
1 chest-to-bar pull-up
1 toes-to-bar
Event 3.
10min amrap of:
20 cal row
15 wall ball
10 box jump overs
2/4/6/8… muscle-ups, ascending ladder
Event 4. "Barbell Hell"
50 deadlift, 60kg
50 bar over hops
50 hand power clean, 60kg
50 bar over hops
50 front squat, 60kg
50 bar over hops
50 shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg
I did that first one some time ago. It was a repeat workout from 3 years ago. The only difference was that it started at 40kg then, and I went after the 2012 version. Now it was time for that third event. It looked like a nice one with some muscle-ups in the mix too. Those are always a bit challenging to think how to pace myself because one muscle-ups are gone, it's quite miserable situation =)
Today muscle-ups were not bad at all. To be honest this workout was all about muscle-ups. Row, wall balls and box jumps were small reps which made it easy to cruise through them. My plan was to take it easy on those though because I reckoned gassing myself out on those would make mu's so much more difficult.
First set was unbroken. Muscle-ups were put here in an ascending ladder, going up by 2 reps per round. On the round of 4's I got 3 in a row, and then a single to finish the round. I made a costly mistake there. I tried to jump on the rings to get the last rep done and couldn't get a grip on the rings. They started to swing back and forth which took some time to get them settled. One more muscle-up was completed on the round of 6's. All the muscle-ups were relatively easier than I thought.
It's not common to have mu's in a metcon for me so these are always good ones. Looking back at the workout I could have gone faster. Usually I know how fast I can go but mu's are still difficult to assess. Maybe that's a good reminder of putting them in metcons more often. That's how I would know better how much my body can tolerate of this skills element, strength and conditioning together.
Last day at work. What a roller coaster of emotions. It's awesome to see all close colleagues have gathered around to show their love as we have spent so much time together in the past. It's been a humble experience and I absorb every bit of it with great gratitude. For the last time I went to train at the place where it all began 3 years ago, Haaga cave. This is where I have built up the base for all strength and skills work. Conditioning was made already somewhat during my floorball career earlier.
Overhead.
Push press 3x8 @ 67.5kg
This is part of the progress with the goal of building stronger shoulders. Now it's all about the 8's, and program said the weight is going to be 67.5kg. The last set was tough and I wasn't fully satisfied on having to arch my back way too much on the last 3 reps. Other than that I walked away with a good feeling of this strength portion.
Pulls.
Deadlift 5x5 @ 170kg
Last time when I did pulls from the floor it was 5x5 @ 160kg. Those deadlifts felt rather light so I decided to jump it up a notch. It's usually depending on how my palms look on pulling days whether it's going to be a good day or a day where I have to stay light. Back and posterior chain in general always take the loads well. Today it was 5 sets of 5 reps at 170 kilos. Felt good about it.
Conditioning.
10 rounds of:
10 handstand push-ups
14 kettlebell snatches, 20kg (7/7)
20 box jumps
This was not for time. It was originally but then a party of two came to hang around at the stations I was working on hspu's, and there's no other place where those could be performed. There was personal training session going on so I didn't have the heart to bother them. There were 3 rounds where I didn't do handstand push-ups and 3 rounds where I didn't do box jumps but snatches took place every single round. I went 7 on right hand, and then switched it to left hand for another 7 reps.
Accessory. There was plenty of time before sauna so I did some biceps and triceps. Something I do practically never. Not that those wouldn't be useful for me. It's just simply something that has not been in my tool box. Today I gave them a shot.
Thursday. Back squat triples / doubles / singles (up to 145kg). Metcon, long chipper. Time, 15.30.
Huh, today was as sentimental day as it could possible be. I'm about to change my employer after working for this current company for 10 years. I've grown up to a man within that building's walls around me. It has not been just a job, it's been something close to a second home. From the beginning of next year I'm about to build similar confidence and society with another company. Today was my farewell party and it was a really touching event to say the least. I appreciate those guys tremendously. They've affected me in more ways I could ever imagine.
Jasper after the chipper
Strength.
Back squat
Triples (60, 70, 80, 90, 100kg)
Doubles (110, 120, 130kg)
Singles (135, 140, 145kg, fail at 150kg)
After work I hooked up with Jasper and we agreed to get some strength in our lower bodies and then get a good sweat together. This session was supposed to be identical to the one I just did earlier this week with front squats. That was every 90 seconds for a set of front squats, with climbing weights and descending reps, up to a heavy single.
There were not more than one rack available so we shared it with Jazz. that's the reason why I didn't take a look at the clock at all. Point was to go for a set once the bar was available. This was a good workout and the tempo was good. We did the sets alternating. Triples were light, more like warm-up sets. Doubles were easy too. It was great to see that also 2x130kg was ways.
It was kind of funny to witness that singles were under very good control all the way up to 145kg. That last successful one was a bit tight in the end but there was no doubt in my mind it would come up. And I felt strong on that lift. Some doubt still crawled in my mind about hitting the 150kg lift, and that must have affected the last attempt. It went down smoothly, small bounce there and coming back up. Just didn't have enough to bring it all the way up so I had to let it go. Still happy on the 145kg. It's been a while since going this heavy on back squats.
Got this sandbag from Toni and couple of colleagues today =)
Chipper. Time, 15.30
15 pull-ups
20 kettlebell swings, 20kg
30 medball slams, 9kg
30 air squats
15 toes-to-bar's
600m row
30 push-ups
20 lunges
25 ghd sit-ups
15 dips
20 box jumps
10 handstand push-ups
20 overhead squats, 20kg
30 burpees
This is something Jasper had written down some months ago. He's had some issues with his hips so we haven't been able to go after this one. Today he was well rested and body felt fresh so it was time to see what this is all about.
The ideology behind this is a chipper. Every movement exists there only once so you just chip it away. All the movements and reps were designed so that you don't have to stop and lean your elbows on your knees but just keep moving.
I was able to obey that plan pretty well. Only two elements had to be broken down. Those were dips and push-ups, a.k.a the pressing movements. Push-ups were 20-5-5, and dips were 8-3-2-2. They got spicy. However, my breaks were not that long as I wanted to keep moving all the time. There was not a single movement that would have been too much to handle. It was more like the continuing agony of having heart rate up and muscles working.
Okay, the last element of 30 burpees was disgusting. At that point of the wod it was just awful. My strategy was just do them one by one, without thinking too much about it. I went up and down without stops. I'm proud of this one.
Benchmark workout Rahoi. There was a chance of doing snatches and back squats today but back was too tight for that one so I decided to get a good warm-up and focus on Rahoi. This was the second time doing this one.
As rx'd this should be bar-facing burpees but there isn't a good spot where to jump over the barbell and face it for burpees. That takes some space and it's damn hard to find find a good place at this gym without disturbing a good bunch of people in the process. That's why my stations were the box seen below, bar on the platform and burpees behind the platform as regular burpees.
This probably helped me gather more reps as I got a clearly better result than in the beginning of this year. It was well over one full round more but I wouldn't like to compare these that much because the burpees were not identical.
This is a good burner and a nice test for lungs. It needs to be unbroken, just pace yourself on each movement. There is still some transition times to be cut off to get more reps completed in the 12 min time frame. Very good workout in opinion!
Tuesday. Every 0:30, perform 1 squat clean @ 90kg, for 10min. Row, 0:20 on, 0:10 off, for 10min. Gymnastics, every 1:30, perform 10 hspu.
This Tuesday I went to workout at the workplace's gym. Back to where it all began. This was my place for 2.5 years, on a daily basis. Base was built here. It was fun to get back there. It was lots of emom style work this time.
Oly.
Every 0:30, perform 1 squat clean @ 90kg
Total of 20 reps, solid work. Nothing too crazy in here. My lower back was tight, probably due to yesterday's lower body smash plus good mornings on Sunday. Anyway, these went nicely. Each rep was similar to each other.
Intervals.
Row, 0:20 on, 0:10 off, for 10min
Result, 2.274 meters
I saw Graham Holmberg work his butt off on this identical piece of conditioning. Figured it would be great for conditioning. It was basically 10 strokes, then 10 seconds of recovery before the next set. This really hit me somewhere in the middle. It was a good mental stuff. Pace was 1:38-1:41 throughout all the intervals.
Gymnastics.
Every 1:30, perform 10 handstand push-ups
Got through 8 sets
Skills practice in the end. Goal was to fatigue my shoulders big time. And I got a good sweat in all three portions of today's session. I went unbroken for maybe 5 sets. 6th was 9-1, then the 7th and 8th were 6-2-2. Those really got tougher on the last sets. At first I thought about going as far as possible on unbroken sets of 10 reps. But then I wanted to get more reps under my belt. I didn't start the 9th set anymore. The last one really smashed my shoulders.
Monday. Push press 4x8 @ 65kg. Front squat emom (up to 135kg). Emom x 10min: 10 reverse lunges (50kg).
This overhead strength thing is getting interesting. I'm looking forward on these sessions where I have the possibility to put the barbell over my head for a good number of reps. Today the game changed a bit. Then squats even though my hamstrings are sensitive from yesterday's good mornings. It wasn't a surprise as I haven't done those basically at all. Seems like a good activating movement! Finally more smashing of lower body with weighed lunges.
Overhead trength.
Push press 4x8 @ 65kg
Two weeks of 10's are in the books. Now it's time to cut the reps and go heavier. It's gonna be 8's for the next two weeks with increasing weights. It's not easy to determine the loads but luckily me and my shoulder strength mentor had exactly the same view on this issue. It was 65kg for today, then building up in the future. I took one set on video, the 3rd one.
Presses and squats
Strength.
Every 0:60, perform 3 reps (60, 70, 80, 90, 100kg)
Every 1:30, perform 2 reps (105, 110, 115, 120kg)
Every 1:30, perform 1 rep (125, 130, 135kg, fail at PR attempt of 140kg)
Loved it. No doubt about it. I was supposed to do sets every 90 seconds but I realized after two sets that I had done them every 60 seconds so I went with that execution up to the triples at 100kg. Then changed it to doubles every 90sec, and finally after the last double at 120kg it was singles every 90 seconds.
I'm very pleased to this portion. Never in my mind had I these weights in my mind for today. My posterior chain is quite jammed but legs felt okay anyway. Didn't know I'd be so well prepared for heavy squats. Don't even remember when I took 135kg up for the last time. Today that was solid effort and form was not compromised.
That gave me confidence to add 5 more kilos for an attempt at new personal record. Before that I loaded up to 160kg, took it up in my front rack and stood it up, stayed for couple of seconds before re-racking the bar. Tried to fool the system this way to think the bar wouldn't be that heavy. The descent was good, and some way back up looked like it should but then strength vanished and I couldn't stand it up. I'm happy that my core didn't bail me. It was just lack of leg strength.
Accessory.
Every minute on the minute x 10min
10 reverse lunges @ 50kg
Great way to finish lower body. Go after weighed lunges. Had the bar on my back and completed a set of 10 reverse lunges per minute. That took something like 20-30 seconds every round. This also broke a good sweat after couple of minutes. Liked the fact that it burned my legs and put blood running wildly in my body.
Sunday. Push press 1x10 @ 68kg. Emom x 6min: odd 12 thruster (40kg), even 12 c2b. Accessory, 3x10 good morning @ 60kg.
We spent the day taking care of some Christmas business and after that my energy levels were quite low. Program was push press, as part of the progression I've been doing. Then short metcon style work and finally accessory work.
Strength.
Push press 1x10 @ 68kg (+2 extra reps)
It's been 4x10, 3x10, 2x10 before. Now it was only one set of 10 reps. I have always warmed up to a single rep of 80kg before doing the working sets. Today was no exception. 80kg has felt good every time.
So it was only one set of 10, and I was allowed to go further if possible. It turned out to be a good set after all with a total of 12 reps completed. The weights in all sets of 10's were measured quite well and the stimulus was right on the spot. Next up are the 8's for the next 2 weeks.
Overhead & Good morning
Metcon.
Every minute on the minute x 6 minutes
Odd min, 12 thruster (40kg)
Even min, 12 chest-to-bar pull-ups
Just couldn't get it going at any point for a good conditioning piece. Didn't have that killer's instinct for today. This was a short one with thrusters and c2b's. Last set of chest-to-bar's had to be cut in two sets. Other than that I was able to do them unbroken. Thrusters were the easier part of this one.
Thrusters and pull-ups
Accessory.
Good morning 3x10 @ 60kg
Decided to throw this one in the mix just for the heck of it. Couple of sets good mornings to finish it off. This is something I've basically done like never. Maybe sometimes in the past but some sort of accessory work for strength is definitely welcomed. I've had them in my calendar many times but haven't had enough time nor the proper slot to throw it in. This was fun. Hopefully I have more occasions to go after it. Good one for the posterior chain.
Great crossfit day! We were about to head to Hämeenlinna - about one hour away from Helsinki - to witness my brother's first ever crossfit competition. First event for him was going to start at 10.50 so we had to go to the gym at 08.00 in order to get a good session with Toni.
Metcon.
4 rounds of:
5 handstand push-ups
10 power cleans, 60kg
15 burpees
20 kettlebell swing, 24kg
25 wall ball shots, 9kg
3min rest between rounds
This was arrogantly stolen from competitorstraining.com, a.k.a. from Ben Bergeron's programming. Funnily we both had this in mind for this week. Together with Toni we decided to go after it this morning. I'm telling you it wasn't an easy decision to wake up at 6.15, eat breakfast and head to Vantaa to pick my buddy up for an early morning bro session.
It was dark outside and streets were empty. Somehow I managed to get my shit together pretty well and was at Toni's place even before I was supposed to, c'mon. Our training session took place in Crossfit 01300, located in Tikkurila, Vantaa. Gym was great. Enough space, everything one needs and barbells felt good in hands too. For some reason I brought my own wall ball as it was laying around in my car anyway.
We thought this workout would have a different kind of nature. The stimulus was exactly right though. It hurt already after the first round hehe. Okay maybe the morning felt in our bodies somewhat. Yesterday evening (when I felt fresh and energetic) I thought about pushing through the wall balls unbroken.
Yep, that was not going to happen. Hspu's were the easy part of this workout. I'd say way too easy. Just 5 reps and always in the beginning of the round when feeling fresh and breathing was in control. Only thing was that when coming down from the wall I felt a bit "dizzy" and felt like I had to get used to being the other way around before touching the bar.
On the power cleans my original plan was to do them 6-4 or 5-5 but already on the first round I changed the plan as I realized Toni was knocking them one by one in singles. That turned out to be a great plan and forearms remained okay all the way, and didn't get shot during the workout. Luckily it was okay to drop the bar after every rep.
Burpees… Huh, those were not nice, at all. I was able to pace them pretty well and didn't have to divide them in any way but those really sky rocketed my heart beat. After couple of reps it was time to think about a happy place and just do it.
Kettlebell swings were light ones. I'm not used to do work at this weight normally. 2-pood is the standard one. In this one this 24kg was a positive surprise (it was rx'd). It wasn't easy to have my hands right after burpees as the plan was to do them unbroken. In the latter rounds I maybe should have caught the kb a bit earlier. I just tried to settle the breathing a bit before the first swings.
First 2 rounds
Last movement was wall balls. That is considered somewhat a strength of mine. It didn't show today =) First round was 15-10, then they were probably something like 10-8-7 or 12-7-6, not quite sure of the precise numbers. I had muscle-ups written in my program for skills training but there was not enough time nor energy to go after them. We had to jump in the car and head to Hämeenlinna to watch the Masters throwdown.
Last 2 rounds
This was my brother's first ever competition so I was definitely going to cheer him up. Luckily Toni also had free schedule so he joined me on this road trip. Lots of respect to all the competitors aged between 40-59 years. There was even one grandpa at 60+. Great engines and lots of strength was witnessed at Crossfit Hämeenlinna.
It's not self evident that everyone at this age can perform all the tricks these athletes were able to do. It was mind blowing to see them give everything they have and leave it at the battlefield! My bro smashed a clean and jerk PR as it was part of one event, congrats Sipa!
