Tuesday 20.10: Shoulder press, Squat, Gymnastics

Tuesday. Shoulder press 7x5 (across, 50kg). Workout, 5rds of: 10 shoulder press (40kg), 10 back squat (40kg). Workout, 6rds of: 6 strict pull-ups, 10 back squat (40kg). Gymnastics, ring dips and iron cross progression.

My right hamstring that got sprained on Sunday is clearly getting better. At least the pain is not as constant as it was yesterday. In the morning as I woke up the feeling was promising. Hopefully this trend continues in the near future as it's a bit difficult to pump the upper body every single day =) Today was mostly about strict presses, gymnastics and light squats. In squats my leg feel fine which makes it a bit strange. Pain comes when I have to keep my leg straight as the hamstring is under tension in a stretched position.

These were my vague plans before coming to the gym

Overhead strength.

• Shoulder press 7x5 (across @ 50kg)

After warm-up I pretty quickly got to the first working set. First 3 sets felt a bit awkward in my shoulders. By going further shoulders loosened up as they got warm. Last sets felt a lot better in this sense. For some reason I have learned to like shoulder presses.

For a long time my opinion was that it's better to do heavier loads by push pressing or jerking the barbell up instead of shoulder press. And I don't say that still is my view on the subject as heavier loads overhead bring heavier tension on the shoulders. But shoulder presses have their own share in the mix too.

Workout.

• 5 rounds of:
• 10 shoulder press, 40kg
• 10 back squat, 40kg

By just pressing the bar sweat was non-existing. I had enough of it after 7 sets of strict presses for strength so I took a bit off the barbell, added reps, and combined presses with squats. I had tried air squats and light squats so I felt confident of hitting those without pain in the leg.

This turned out to be tough on the shoulders. First 2 rounds were unbroken, then I had to cut them in two pieces, 6-4 reps for the remaining rounds. Surprisingly heavy but considering there was no actual rest period determined. I did the presses, then dropped the bar in my back and completed the squats right away. Then racked the bar and shook my shoulder and tried to recover them before next set. Squats were light but I would definitely not go heavier at this stage.

Workout.

• 6 rounds of:
• 6 strict pull-up
• 10 back squat, 40kg

This was as fun as the previous workout. Okay strict pull-ups are not fun, ever. There is something in them that I don't like =) Maybe that is exactly the reason those should be in the program. Because I tried to complete this with a good rhythm in order to break a good sweat. I live for sweating like a pig. The past days have been tough in this sense. It's been more or less traditional gym-going, and not as much crossfit with high intensity.

Gymnastics.

• 50 ring dip
• Iron cross progression

In the end I did couple of sets ring dips, total of 50 reps, in sets of 10 reps. Mostly they were done normally but some of them I did with slower pace, with the idea of putting focus on controlling the movement up and down. One set was slow-mo on the way down, then a short pause before coming up from the hole with speed. Got to say that set was a bit tougher.

We have one former gymnast who used to be on Finnish national team for years. He came around when I did those dips, and we started to fool around. It ended up with doing couple reps of iron cross on the rings. That was pretty sick feeling. He placed a rubber band between the rings, and pointed the rings sideways to get more support on the forearms. It was surprisingly easy under the instruction of this guy.