Thursday 16.4: Muscle-ups, Cleans, Handstand

Thursday. Skills, muscle-ups (PR 5 reps), handstand. Complex emom, 1 clean + 1 front squat (up to 105kg). Workout, 3rds of: 1min cleans @ 90kg, 2min rest.

Today I wanted to test out couple of muscle-ups just to see if the previous mu training session was a fluke or success. Then lots of different type of cleans, either as complex or as emom workout. Then I took some tng clean and jerks combined with c2b's, and finally handstand training. Cleans got heavy but other than that the day was a lighter one.

Skills.

• Muscle-ups (PR 5 reps)

My confidence was high when walking to the gym. Short warm-up but I was so hesitant that I needed to get my hands pretty quickly on those rings. Just a double to get used to this movement, then it was time to put my phone on Pauliina's hand and I told asked her to take a short clip because I'm gonna hit a PR right now.

For me this was no surprise. It was the end result of working towards this goal. This thing took another step further when I bought Rogue rings. Since then, I've had the possibility to practice muscle-ups. Okay, we had the same rings at the old gym but there was an issue. The roof was too low in that place which means that my form was not able to be as it should be. When bringing the rings outdoors to a tree branch I was able to hang the rings high enough which means I had to jump on to the rings.

This new place is gonna seal the deal. I'm gonna keep having muscle-ups in my training sessions frequently. Plus, here it's also possible to do bar muscle-ups which is 100% going to have a positive side effect on ring mu's too. On this particular record breaking set the ring straps got stuck around my left foot, and I had to stop the momentum for a while to get the strap loose. After the 4th rep the "natural grip" got ripped off my hands which made the last rep a little challenging. I'll take this for now!

PR, 5 reps

Complex.

• Every minute on the minute
• 1 clean + 1 front squat (40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110kg)
• Then, 5 x 1 clean +1 front squat @ 100kg

Last 2 days my legs have been sore as hell. Don't know if it was the sled work or those 100 thrusters on Tuesday. The reality anyway was that I needed to get some heavier cleans and squats in my system for sure after yesterday's rest day.

This was a fun little complex. Emom workouts are the best. I really like that timer putting some pressure on recovery. Had no issues with these cleans this time. My hands were a bit wider this time too even though it was only cleans, not jerk. This might be a good call because I was able to bring the barbell higher before bouncing it up from the hips. Felt good.

After having done this for 10 minutes this part of the workout was over. After looking at couple of the reps on video I wanted to get more reps done. Decided to make 5 quick sets of the same sequence, clean + squat combo @ 100kg. Enjoyed every single rep of these.

Complex

Cleans.

• 3 rounds of:
• 1 minute of squat clean singles @ 90kg
• 2 minute break
• Result, 6 reps per minute

More cleans baby. I've done more power cleans lately so I took a good doze of squat cleans today. No doubt my legs were tired after this. And this also got my breathing heavy as well. Last reps of each set got challenging for sure. There might have been time for 7th rep in some sets but I was definitely done after 6 reps. I noticed the further the set / minute went, the lower the bar came to my hips which is not a good thing. It was a fatigued man's way to get that barbell on my front rack.

Extra work.

• Clean and jerks (40-60kg)
• Chest-to-bar pull-ups

There was a metcon in my mind but there was no way I was gonna hit it after this one. Toni just did a 3 round workout of 400m running, 10 c&j @ 60kg and 10 c2b's which would obviously be some sort of sprint. A moderate length wod at max.

Instead I just did clean and jerk sets to work on efficient mechanics. Good break between c&j's and pull-ups. C2b's were sets of 10's. Nothing super heavy.

Skills.

• Handstand

In the end I took couple of sets handstand. It went quite decently. I think I'll have to take some clips in order to witness that myself. There has been nice development that I have been able to hold my stance still for longer times than before. I mean without moving my hands at all. Just balancing the entire body by holding the core tight and pressing my fingers strongly or gently towards the ground depending which way my body is leaning.