Tuesday 29.12: Press, 10min metcon + Squats

Tuesday. AM. Push press 4x6 @ 70kg. Metcon, 10min amrap of: 300m row, 20 du, 15 wb. Result, 4rds + 150m row. Accessory, 3 rds of: 10 reverse hypers, 10 barbell rows. PM. Squats on squats on squats.

Another early morning workout. This time the night sleep was lengthy, and I felt much better when waking up. We have been focusing on getting more sleep on a daily basis and it's paying off. I feel much more energetic during the day. This has been a good trend lately. It still requires more warm-up in the very morning workouts to get mentally and physically fully prepared.

Overhead.

• Push press 4x6 @ 70kg

Part of the progression. I have now gone with this "program" for 4 full weeks. Twice a week. Started at 4x10, 3x10, 2x10, 1x10. Then same amount of sets but weight increased and reps decreased to 8's. Now it's time to go for 6's. Today's load was 70kg.

Damned the bar felt heavy even with an all-around warm-up prior to touching the bar. At 40-50kg the bar felt much heavier =) Once I had pushed 60kg for couple of reps I decided I wouldn't go for a heavier single before the first working set but started the first one when climbing up. Felt okay. A bit shaky but still rather solid. My shoulders and triceps took these well but for some reason it didn't feel as smooth in the front rack when I dropped the bar from overhead as normally.

Metcon. Result, 4 rounds + 150m row

• 10min amrap of:
• 300m row
• 20 double unders
• 15 wall ball shots, 9kg

Going for bodyweight elements purely equals to heavy breathing. There's usually not much room for recovery and leaning elbows on knees. Or at least there shouldn't be. It's a different thing if there's barbells included or high level skills such as muscle-ups. This was rowing, double unders and wall balls.

My plan was to get a steady pace throughout the workout. Rowing was faster than if it was a longer distance. I kept the damper setting somewhere between 8-10, depending on the round. I've been neglecting double unders as those have not rolled as I want to. That's not the correct way to attack weaknesses for sure =) They usually hurt in my shins for some reason. Box jumps don't but jump rope does. Sick. I reasoned foam rolling my shins would make a difference, and that definitely did! Felt great jumping around.

Wall balls were good, made my legs burn a bit. Nice combination mixing it with rowing. That really brought fatigue in to my legs. This workout definitely felt in my legs and breathing. Good one.

Accessory.

• Reverse hypers 3x10 @ 20, 30, 40kg
• Barbell row 3x10 @ 60, 70, 80kg

At first I thought about getting back home to recover but then this hit me from somewhere. Took couple of sets of both reverse hypers and rows with a barbell. I'm not sure if I did the rows correctly. This was how I felt like it needs to be done. I've done them with dumbbells for couple of times. That's more natural for me. This was probably the first time I did this with a barbell. Reverse hypers feel like a great accessory element. Especially after squats. Today I piled some weight on the system and tried how it feels. Awesome for posterior chain development.

Squats.

• Back squats
• 5x120, 125, 130kg
• 3x132.5, 135kg, 2x137.5kg
• 1x140, 142.5, f 145kg

• Front squat
• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes of:
• 5 front squats @ 90kg touch'n'go

Afternoon session was all about squatting. First back squats and then front squats to murder my legs totally. Had to flush it with cycling for 10 minutes on a stationary bike. That felt like the best cycling piece ever. I did lots of mobility, stretching and then that cool down. Without those I probably wouldn't walk anymore. My legs are gone already now in the evening. I'm anticipating they are sore as hell tomorrow.

My plan was to do back squats. Built it up little by little. Even though I wasn't able to build up close to my max load, I'm still happy due to Sunday's and Monday's volume of lunges and workouts in general. Especially those lunges made my legs sore big time. Plan was to do 5-5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1. Last set of the triples was so damn heavy that I racked the barbell after 2 reps. And the last single had to be assisted up by my spotter.

I wasn't planning on doing front squats initially. However, I took some weight off the bar and left it at 90 kilos. Then took 5 reps for fun, walked around and took another. At that moment I decided to make it something like strength conditioning. Didn't have a clock running as this was created in the spur of the moment while I was doing it. I basically walked around to shake my legs and then returned to the bar. These were touch'n'go style squats which made it more difficult.