Tuesday 31.3: Overhead, Front Squat, Metcon + Clean, Metcon, Ghd, Handstand

Tuesday. AM @ Eltsu: Strength, press / jerk (max 90kg). Strength, front squat emom (up to 135kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 250m run, 10 oh lunges (40kg), 50 du. Time, 13.20.

PM @ OP Center: Power clean emom x 11 (PR 103kg). Metcon, 12min amrap of: 4 bar mu, 8 hspu, 12 pistol. Result, 127 reps. Cashout, 60 GHD sit-ups. Skills, handstand.

What a day! In the morning we went to our wedding place to arrange some things concerning the big day. Afterwards I dropped my lady to work and my responsibility was to go to work in a bit different style. Today it was Eltsu cave where I got my daily doze of crossfit in. After food and nap it was time to hit it again, this time in a totally new place, Optimal Training Center.

Overhead strength.

• Complex of: 1 push press, 1 push jerk, 1 split jerk (60, 70, 70, 70, 70, 70, 80, 80kg)
• Pause jerk 3x80, 3x85, 1x90, 1x90kg

Starting the day by putting weight overhead. I was looking forward to this part for sure. Actually the entire day got me chills as I was thinking about it. I was like a little boy in a candy shop. My left shoulder has bothered me for some time in the heavier weights. In lighter ones no problem. I was optimistic today but it made a comeback after I put 70kg on the barbell.

This was a bummer my mood dropped for a second. No stretching would help and I couldn't figure out what to do. Then somehow it occurred to my mind that I could take a wider grip on the barbell. That's because there are no issues when I do snatch grip presses or jerks. Let's give it a shot. And it helped immediately! Couldn't be happier about this. I was a little careful on the jerks but it sure felt great to put weight overhead!

After finishing the complex sets I decided to work on my jerk. Let's do it with a pause on the dip phase. Get your breath, dip down, halt there for a moment, then extend the hips and jerk it to the sky. These were amazing. Why have I not done these before. I believe these will bring awareness to the movement very well.

Recap of overhead strength

Squats.

• Front squat, 3 x 60, 90, 100kg
• Every minute on the minute
• 1-3min: 3 x 100kg
• 4-6min: 2 x 110kg
• 7min: 1 x 120kg
• 8min: 1 x 125kg
• 9min: 1 x 130kg
• 10min: 1 x 135kg
• 11min: 1 x 140kg failed

This part was left a bit to imagination on the spot. Took some triples to get a feeling how my body reacts on these. Feeling was great. I did pause squats on those earlier sets. Then it hit me that this should definitely be an emom workout. With ascending weights and descending reps. Started off with triples, then doubles and finally singles. My camera's memory card went full at some point so I didn't get the entire stuff on video.

After 6 minutes it was supposed to be singles and 120kg was light so I added 5kg after each minute. Ended up hitting 135kg and I', telling you it wasn't that bad. Yes, I Had to push it but it was manageable. The easiest one I've had this far. It was probably the third time I've got it ever. After that one I put something like 160-170kg on the bar, took it on my front rack, stepped back, held it for couple of seconds and put it back on the rack. Actually I had troubles re-racking the bar for some reason so I had it for quite a while =)

The strategy for this one was to fake my body to first give a huge load, then drop it back to 140kg and nail it. I believe this was a good strategy as the bar felt comfortable after that monster load. Still, I couldn't finish this one. It's almost there though. I'm taking it one day.

Attempt at 140kg

Metcon. Time, 13.20

• 5 rounds of:
• 250m run
• 10 overhead walking lunges, 40kg
• 50 double unders

Running is a great element in metcons. Usually I have to utilize treadmill if I wanna have running as part of a metcon and that's just not the same. I'll take it as there are no options but I prefer real running any day. Another thing I wanted to have in this metcon is an element that I can't do in my normal gym. Overhead lunges. Okay it's possible to do them but you can't walk forward, you just have to go up and down within that one meter area. No cool. Here I can walk around with the bar as there is plenty of space. Double unders were part of this just to get some skills done and breathing go high.

This was exactly what I wanted as I was writing the metcon. Running was steady pace. Oh lunges unbroken. Got to shoulders and breathing. Double unders are okay but putting a lot of them in a workout in a row makes it a bit miserable. They burn my shoulders a lot. I've done 100 reps sometime unbroken so I got them but 50 reps in a workout will probably force me to break them down somehow. This time I did them in either 25-25 or 20-15-15 reps. I think there was one trip but other than that it was intentional.

Strength.

• Every minute on the minute x 11 minutes
• Power cleans
• 1-3min: 3 x 80kg
• 4-6min: 2 x 85kg
• 7-8min: 1 x 90kg
• 9min: 1 x 95kg
• 10min: 1 x 100kg
• 11min: 1 x 103kg (PR)

After eating, taking a nap and eating, I headed to this new place that was just opened about two weeks ago. Optimal Training Center, a freaking heaven. There were Rogue and Eleiko bars and plates, possibility to do muscle-ups, handstand walk, do farmer's walk, push sled, ring muscle-ups, ghd sit-ups, reverse hypers if you want to. The point is: once I come here, it's not gonna be just basic stuff but I want to utilize these circumstances.

Wanted to get my hands on this Rogue bar right away. Power cleans in the same way as front squats in the morning. I saw mr. Froning do this kind of workout and got inspired by it right away. These cleans felt super good, and it felt from the very beginning it's gonna be a great day of cleaning. Ended up getting a personal record. Getting bigger numbers for power clean must mean things are looking better for squat cleans too.I've improved about 10kg of my power clean lately. I'll take it.

Emom power cleans

Metcon. Result, 127 reps (5 rounds + 3 hspu)

• 12min amrap of:
• 4 bar muscle-ups
• 8 handstand push-ups
• 12 pistol squats

Looked easy on paper but damned it got me big time! Bar muscle-ups and handstand push-ups are a real combination. First time ever I've mixed these two elements. I was able to do mu's unbroken except for one set. I believe it was the 3rd or 4th round. Purely lack of concentration. On hspu's it was same thing. With the difference that it was not lack of concentration, it was lack of strength =) My shoulders were killing me. It was the last full set of hspu's that I had to break in to 5-3 reps.

Didn't warm up for pistol squats. Just took one rep with both leg before the workout to check it how it's done. I figured my legs were already waiting for some action. And they worked well. These were surprisingly comfortable. I liked how they wore me down in the course of the workout but still I was able to keep moving on them. My breaks took place between pistols and bar mu's. I wanted to get those mu's unbroken so I had to chill instead of jumping right back on the pull-up bar.

Cashout.

• 60 GHD sit-ups

Had to do these. I've never tried even one rep so this was a must. Took 4x15 reps with a pause between sets. Total of 60 reps. This was cool, and I guess these would definitely get to the core in a workout. This might be a deceiving movement. It wasn't that bad but let's wait for tomorrow. Then we'll see how it really goes.

Skills.

• Handstand

Just wanted to play around and take advantage of the great area of grass to go inverted. Liked it a lot. That grass area is perfect for handstand walk as well as sled push and farmer's carry. There were some people doing their thing so the latter ones were out of question. Great day of training for sure. Loved every second of it!!!