Tuesday 7.4: Clean complex, Weighted lunges, Burpees + Front squat, Metcon

Tuesday. AM: Clean complex, 1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean + 1 squat clean (up to 95kg). Emom x 10min: 1 squat clean @ 100kg. Metcon, 6 rds of: 10 deads (60kg), 10 front rack lunges (60kg), 10 burpee. Time, 11.40.

PM: Front squat triples (max 120kg). Metcon, 5 rds of: 8 hspu, 12 pull-ups, 16 ghd sit-ups. Time, 10.52

I woke up in the morning like I was about to go to work. Okay, I did but not to to my workplace. Instead, it was time to put some Rogue apparel on and head to Eltsu for a good morning grind. Afterwards I drove to Klaukkala to assist the in-laws in cleaning their house up. Aftermath of the big spring cleaning. Plus it's time to change those winter tires to summer versions so I went tire shopping with Kari. In the afternoon we went to train at Optimal Performance Center (OPC) for another session of the day.

Clean complex.

• Build up on the following complex:
• 1 power clean + 1 hang squat clean + 1 full squat clean
• Weights: 40, 60, 70, 80, 85, 90, 95kg

Considering my max loads on clean these weren't too serious weights. Power clean is pretty close to max load (1RM is 103kg from one week ago) but that didn't bring any issues. Those felt quite good all the way. Squat cleans were further away from my one rep max (squat clean 1RM is currently 115kg).

However, after racking the barbell on my shoulders as power clean, it's not that easy for me to get a good grip for the second rep, let alone the third one. Yes, it would be easy to get an open hand grip but that's not what I'm looking for. I want to have hook grip in order to have stronger grasp on the bar.

That is exactly why this was a great exercise for me to practice re-gripping the barbell on its way back down from front rack position to hips. This wasn't bad for my legs, this was more like a way to work on that strong grip and transition from one rep to another. Efficiency. I'm happy I was able to hit 95kg. There the last rep had some issues on the grip so I stopped it there and moved on.

Complex recap

Clean.

• Every minute on the minute, for 10 minutes:
• 1 squat clean @ 100kg

Wasn't done with cleans though! Decided to add 5 more kilos to get 100kg. Then, I put the timer running and took one rep at a time, one rep per minute and recovered for the remaining minute. It was a total of 10 minutes. It was cool to get these rather heavy cleans done more than couple of reps.

It was kind of bipolar mentality. First half of them were light and I thought about adding load but then decided to stick to the plan anyway. The latter half were not that heavy either but I had some issues racking the bar as I wanted in the last reps. But they were okay too so this went actually quite well in general.

Cleans

Metcon. Time, 11.40

• 6 rounds of:
• 10 deadlift, 60kg
• 10 front rack lunges, 60kg
• 10 burpee

Once again this place is great because there's plenty of space so it allows you to do various kinds of stuff that are not possible in my regular gym. One of these things is walking lunges with a barbell. It doesn't matter if it's front rack, back rack of overhead lunges. They all kick ass. I've done them mostly outdoors in Klaukkala as there's a big grass field or some sort of park so it's easy to go after these.

Last week I did overhead lunges, now it was a bit heavier front rack lunges. I piled up 60kg on the barbell and decided to combine deadlifts and lunges as barbell movements, and then burpees to make it a real conditioning session. This really took my breath away.

There are usually heavier deadlifts in my metcons so this 60kg (135lbs) was very light. However, it was surprising how that started to weigh much more during the workout. I got them unbroken anyway, would not have accepted anything else.

Front rack lunges were great! It's mostly been exactly overhead lunges but these one notch heavier front rack lunges made my butt cheeks hurt. It's difficult to describe where this hurt most. The entire body must work together, from legs to shoulders, breathing also becomes an issue. Have to be very tight and tense all over the body, and core must be strong in order to keep the bar in the front rack instead of dropping it too much in front.

Burpees are always a pleasure. In this one they just increased heart beat to the roof. There's no mystery to knocking burpees. Just pace yourself and keep moving. No reason to stop. I'm happy on how the pace of this workout stayed alright throughout the 11-12 minutes. The feeling inside got worse by the minute and it took some time to recover afterwards but it was a very good metcon for conditioning, hands down!

Strength.

• Front squat
• 3x90, 100kg
• 5x110kg
• 3x115, 120, 90kg

We decided to start going to this new place I wrote about last week. It's called Optimal Performance Center (OPC). Some of the days we'll hit it here and some days at our workplace. And once the spring / summer gets further, I'll definitely do some outdoor training as well. This new place has perfect prerequisites for crossfit training. Only things they are missing are wall balls and ropes. Other than that it's everything you'd like to have.

My butt cheeks were almost cramping during the day so maybe hitting front squats wasn't the smartest decision but I still decided to stick to my original plan. This was totally by feeling. This was light weight. It went okay but I was a bit conservative as the morning already took some of my energy away from lower body.

Metcon. Time, 10.52

• 5 rounds of:
• 8 handstand push-ups
• 12 pull-ups
• 16 ghd sit-ups

Ghd sit-ups are my new favorite. It's something I've been dreaming of for about 2 years now. Haven't had the possibility to do them anywhere at all. It has looked so cool when those pro guys and girls have done it that I thought it's a must thing. This was the second time in this place and second time of jumping on ghd sit-ups.

Combination turned out to be hspu's, pull-ups and ghd's. This too, was a great combination of movements. At first there were pistols included in this triples instead of some other element (don't remember anymore what it replaced) but this worked well too.

My hspu's are on a level that these sets didn't burn me too much. At first I had planned on hitting bigger sets of every movement for 3 rounds but this 5-rounder kept me moving better and faster as everything went unbroken. This way I got much more intense of this. There's a time and place for bigger sets too, definitely.

On pull-ups I was practicing in keeping my feet together and bringing them much stronger back on my way down to gain more momentum for the motion. It feels more efficient when using a stronger kip than before. No wonder…

I'm very happy on how those ghd's seem to be a strong side for me. Got through all these 5 sets unbroken and without hesitation. There was a little walk around the gym between all three stations but once I got to the core station I climbed on and started doing reps right away.