Monday 16.3: Clean, Front squat, Bar mu's, Wb

Monday. Emom, clean singles. Start at 60kg, add 5kg until 100kg. Then add 2.5kg per min. Result, 115kg. Strength, front squat 4x4 (max 122.5kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 5 bar mu's, 20 wb. Time, 12.30. Cashout, 50 wb and 2km run.

This day was awesome! First I got some strength work done at the gym in the form of emom cleans and regular front squats. Then I changed clothes and headed to the nearby Pirkkola sports center for an outdoor metcon, something similar to CF Open 15.3. Same elements, now I know what the fuzz is all about.

Pulls.

• Every minute on the minute
• Clean singles
• Start at 60kg, add 5kg per minute
• After 100kg, add 2.5kg per minute
• Result, 115kg

This hit me like a lightning last week that I wanna do this. Emom workouts are the best I know. The ideology is like normal strength training with the exception of having the recovery periods short in between. In some cases it's compulsory to have good breaks, let's say when you're knocking 5x5 heavy back squats. Wouldn't happen with less than minute of recovery.

Today I began with light weights. Took doubles in the end to warm up and did some pause squats also with 60-70kg weights. It was light stuff up until somewhere around 100kg. My focus there was to bring the bar as high as possible and not hurry with the pull. That was the focus, not necessarily the desired outcome =) I liked to have these on tape to analyze them more closely but that was not gonna happen today 'cause there were plenty of people taking care of their fitness.

After 100kg my only target was to get under the bar as quickly as possible and to ignore the talks in my head of not having the time and courage to get under these loads. Basically all my missed lifts in clean are due to lack of courage to drop under the bar. Weights over 110kg are intimidating as hell. Those missed lifts look more like deadlifts as I don't drop down at all.

This is actually the reason why I started doing deep squats on both back and front squats, as well as pause squats (starting from last autumn) because that would help me have the balls to be under big loads in the deepest position possible in cleans. And that has really helped. Today was a big day in this sense. I never thought about being crushed under the bar, and I had the nerves of dropping down, even for a PR attempt at 117.5kg. Wasn't able to get it nicely in the front rack position and it fell forward but I take it as s huge step forward as it was the first time being able to have a sense of how it feels to have the bar on front rack in the bottom with this heavy bar. Today was the second time I had 115kg successfully up.

Strength.

• Front squat 4x4 (110, 115, 120, 122.5kg)

Front squats are natural continuance to cleans / clean and jerks. Body is already warmed up so you can jump to real weights practically right away. The first set felt rather heavy at first but then again I had decided to go up anyway so I put on 2.5kg plates more, and took another set. That felt as heavy but squats are mysterious to me. They often feel heavy but there's still more in the tank.

So I didn't think about it that much, just kept on adding weights on the bar, next stop at 120kg. Before coming to the gym I thought this might be the end of these sets but as it came up okay, I realized there's more in these legs and core to get one set more with slightly heavier load. 122.5kg is the heaviest I've ever had for 4 reps. Not bad. I'm very happy!

4x120kg

Metcon. Time, 12.30

• 5 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 20 wall ball, 9kg

After barbell play I changed clothes, jumped in my car and drove five minutes to Pirkkola which is a great sports park. The reason I went there is bar muscle-ups and wall balls. There was a big desire to get those in my system. The weather has been so beautiful that I wanted to take advantage of the spring and nature coming to life again after long winter.

This combination was a real shoulder killer. I did both movements unbroken each round. Wall balls were easier but right after each set the shoulder burn occurred. I walked between these two stations and didn't hurry because I really wanted to get all muscle-ups done in one set without dropping down in between. They weren't all beautiful but it was great to have 'em unbroken all 5 rounds.

Metcon

Cashout.

• 50 wall ball shots
• 2km run

After chilling for a while the wall ball was shot to the target 50 reps more. It was 2x25 reps with recovery between sets. My shoulders had it for today. Dropped the gear in my car and headed for a cool down run in the woods of Pirkkola. The track seems to have some snow still there but it will probably be no time and it's all good for 400m sprints. Hopefully so!