Friday 21.8: FS, Burpee, Pull-ups + Run

Friday. Amrap 15min: front squat @ 60kg, 10 burpee, 12 pull-ups. Result, 7 rounds. Evening: 30min run

My left knee has been bothering me for some time already. It's been a mood killer at times but I'm still hanging on. Today for some miracleous reason it felt great so I was ready to attack some squats. In the evening I went for a jog. That's a rarity.

Amrap 15. Result, 7 rounds

• 8 front squats @ 60kg
• 10 burpees
• 12 pull-ups

The number of reps indicates that this was supposed to be completed unbroken. Those squats were good, and it was super fun to hit some squats for a while. Burpees started to feel uncomfortable during the workout but still manageable. Coming to think about it, pull-ups were similar. There was no particular element in this one that was intolerable. Somehow the overall burden just started to mount up and it sure did become tougher by the round. Great wod though. There's some walking that needs to be done between pull-up station and my squat rack (=Yoke station). Maybe that was the key to consistent pacing as I got some recovery time there.

Run.

• 30min run
• Daycare run

During the day I had a running stroller (or whatever it's called) with me and I ran to daycare to pick up Emma in the afternoon. In the evening I went for a recovery run just to get my body moving. No stress over this one. No idea how far I ran, that was not the point in this one.

 

Wednesday 19.8: Wb, Row, Deads

Wednesday. Amrap 18 min: 45 wb, 30 cal row, 15 deads @ 100kg. Result, 3rds + 27 wb

We had a work related call with Toni just prior to this one, and at the end of the call I asked him what he's going to hit today. He took this gem from Ben Bergeron I believe. The rx'd version was 120kg or something alike. Deadlift is my strongest lift, no doubt. But I had some issues with my back for weeks in the beginning of this summer and that scared the shit out of me. In that session there were no problems whatsoever but the day after was tough. Then it stayed on for some time. I've been neglecting heavy pulls for sure. However, this sounded cool but still horrible. I fiured why not.

Workout. Result, 3 rounds + 27 wall balls

• Amrap 18 minutes of:
• 45 wall ball shots
• 30 calories row
• 15 deadlifts @ 100kg

The most obnoxious thing in this workout was probably those wall balls. I have nothing against wb's in general but I do have an issue when you have to throw the ball 45 consecutive times up on the wall. But it's good variation to have huge loads every now and then. Always mixing the rep and time schemes is only smart.

On the first round I was a bit too enthusiastic and went for 30 ub wall balls. Then had to cut the rest in to 8+7 to finish the round. No idea of how fast I went on the concept2 rower. On deadlifts it was 10+5 reps.

It took 4.52 minutes to finish the round. What I changed for the second round was the first set of wall balls. I took 20 reps there, then took another 15 reps and finally 10 reps. Same system on the last full round. Deadlifts were identical every round. Those pulls were super. I had them under control throughout the wod and I had zero issues with the movement or my back. Couldn't even feel it on my back the next day. That was strong feeling.

Second round took me 5.41 and third round 6.09. After full 3 rounds were completed I still had time for some wall balls. At this time Clock stood at 16.42. I got a total of 27 reps on thos wb throws on the 4th round. That made it to 162 total reps on the workout. That sounds like a lot.

Tuesday 18.8: Run, Hspu + Badminton

Tuesday. Lunch wod, 5 rounds of: 400m run, 20 hspu. Evening, 1h badminton

Another bodyweight workout. When you have a tight time slot, it's easier to program something where you don't have to think about having proper warm-up. Either it's lighter barbell / weights or then just bodyweight workout. With more time to be spent it's good to have some heavier loading as well. That's just my thought.

Workout. Time, 18.10

• 5 rounds of:
• 400m run
• 20 handstand push-ups

I was a bit arrogant and thought I might be doing these unbroken or at least big chunks of those hspu's. It turned out that the first round was unbroken, the second 17+3, and the rest so that the first attempt was usually around 13 reps, then finished it with approximately triples. Those got heavier by the round (like it was a surprise) but still those rounds of 3-5 remained the same strategy-wise.

In the evening we went to play badminton with Tuomas. Prior to that, my upper body was hurt. In a good way. From the past training sessions. That badminton session was a quality hour and the result was good play, long balls and legs got sore.

Monday 17.8: Row, Du, Burpee

Monday. Workout, 1k row, 10 rds of: 25 du and 10 burpee, 1k row. Time, 21min.

Tight Schedule at work but as I'm working from home there are great benefits. Use of time is much more efficient. Plus I can fit ine some very efficient lunch workouts. For example today's gem, I spent a total of 30 minutes after I had my training clothes on. Couple of minutes warm-up, then 21min workout, and ready for action back to work. I'm usually working outdoors at our terrace every day so if necessary I can hop in to a meeting or call with a colleague right after. Take s shower and eat lunch in 5min at some suitable moment. Suits me perfectly this style.

Workout. Time, 21min

• 1.000m buy-in row, then
• 10 rounds of:
• 25 double unders
• 10 burpees, then
• 1.000m cash-out row
  

The point was to go all bodyweight. Take that row as a kind of a warm-up. I believe the pace was around 1.55 for that kilometer, fluids get going, body gets loosened up and ready for some heavier breathing. Double unders rolled perfectly. There were no hick ups during those 10 rounds. On the burpees I paced myself. Then straight into the rower and row back home to finish the workout. Somehow breathing was on the heavier side but still I had this one under control. It took me 20-21min to finish this one. At some point I messed up with the timer so I'm not quite sure of the actual time.

Sunday 16.8: Intervals

Sunday. Intervals of box jumps, push-ups and running.

Usually when I step outside our front door straight to my garage gym I have some sort of plan of the workout I'm gonna hit today. Or if I don't have, it somehow comes up from somewhere. Today I had to struggle to come up with something smart. This looked easy on paper but it got nasty.

Intervals.

• 2 rounds, alternating between A and B of:

A)

• 25 box jumps
• 400m run
• 25 box jumps

B)

• 40 push-ups
• 400m run
• 40 push-ups

This type of workout is very rare in my programmin. I mean this A & B type of stuff where you mix two different workouts and alternate between those every round. Anyway, it's been an eternity since doing box jumps. There's no sensible reason why that has not taken Place but still, it has not happened. Back in the days when I trained indoors at a gym, box jumps were one of my strongest movements. It was like I didn't get fatigued that much jumping up and down. Those are much harder nowadays but Still rather smooth.

My goal on both of these workouts was to run faster than normalli when I go for that classic home street run back and forth that 200m stretch. On that A piece, it definitely became a factor that my running wore me a bit down so it was interesting to acoompany that with 50 box jumps. Damed my legs were jello after that first rounds. Luckily I foresaw this workout and understood that there must be abundant of recovery time. The rest / recovery ratio was 1:1. That means to say it took me about 4min of work, followed by 4min of rest time.

So whereas those total 100 box jumps took the energy outta my legs, the B version obviously was tougher on the upper body. A total of 160 push-ups probably gives a hint that my shoulders and triceps were smashed. God damned the last 40 reps was tough. I did the latter round of workout B with parallettes. That made it a bit more challenging but somehow the movement pattern was better. I didn't have much warm-up prior to the workout and started pushing with cold upper body. Thus, I needed the movement pattern be optimal.

All in all, great workout once again

Saturday 15.8: Hero wod Nate, Run, Row

Saturday. Hero wod Nate (on pull-up bar). Result, 15 rds + 2 bar mu. Wod, for 3rds of: 5min row, 5min row.

This was purely awesome! This has been knocking on the back of my head for some time. I do have Rogue rings but there is no place where to hang them as high as I'd need them for ring muscle-ups. So my muscle-ups have to be completed on pull-up bar. Today's focus was thus on Nate on bar. In the evening we got a chance to hit the city with my wife as the in-laws came to our house to babysit the next generation.

Hero wod Nate. Result, 15 rounds + 2 bar muscle-ups. Compare to 12.4.2015

• Amrap 20 minutes of:
• 2 bar muscle-ups
• 4 handstand push-ups
• 8 kettlebell swings @ 32kg

It was a challenge to simulate this in my head. Wouldn't know how those bar mu's would go like. It's been a while since doing them. My lats have become stronger I believe, and I've done quite a lot of pulling on the bar in different forms. So I was confident those might roll nicely. And they did. I was able to hold on to the same pace throughout the workout.

There is some walking between the stations. I mean hspu's and pull-up bar. Don't know but maybe that might have been good and not a time-consumer. That walk gave me time to recover and get ready for hspu's and muscle-ups. Strategy was to hit those mu's as doubles of course, then walk to the hspu wall and complete those hspu's right away. Kettlebell was there couple of meters away from hspu station. I grabbed the bell immediately. After swings the walk back to the pull-up bar is about 10 meters so that was my recovery time. Each round was between 1.15 - 1.22. That pleased me a lot.

One kind of remarkable thing was that I was able to complete a total of 34 bar muscle-ups during the session without ripping my hands. Completed one extra round after the workout. This was a Personal Record for me. 

Conditioning.

• 3 rounds of:
• 5 min row
• 5 min run

I took myself together and decided to do another workout. Mostly just easy pace running and rowing, conditioning piece to get the juice flowing in my body. I have no idea of the pace on neither running or rowing. Only focus was to complete these 5min sets with a running clock.

Friday 14.8: Dumbbells and Hspu's

Friday. Wod, 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16 of: Hspu, HPC @ 2x25kg dumbbells. Time, 11.15. Accessory strength

Earlier this week it was crossfit-free time as I only played badminton which goes for good conditioning, and had one rest day as well. Thursday was barbell cycling so it was time for a metcon style workout. 

Wod. Time, 11.15

• 2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16 reps of:
• Handstand push-ups
• Hang power clean @ 2x25kg dumbbells

This totalled 72 reps of each movements. Hspu's and two dumbbells simultaneously. The combination was beautiful. I went unbroken on the dumbbells which surprised be somewhat. I didn't know beforehand that all the sets would be ub but thought maybe last two rounds might be broken. Especially because of the combination as shoulders get more fatigued due to hspu's.

Handstand push-ups were unbroken for maybe somewhere around 12 reps or 14 reps. Last round had to be broken somehow but I can't remember that so well. Anyway, breathing was heavy, grip stayed strong and shoulders got burned.

Accessory.

• Cable pull / push

I took another session of accessory movements with this newly acquired  cable of mine. Got to say that even though I am not a fan of bodybuilding type of training I do understand the benefits of hitting some isolation movements on some upper body muscles. To go for these accessory movements after the actual training session I can feel it on the next day with more sore muscles. And I like that

Monday 10.8 - Thursday 13.8: Badminton and Crossfit

Monday: Badminton

Tuesday: Rest day

Wednesday: Badminton

Thursday. Power cleans up to 3x95kg. Wod, 5rds of: 15 push press @ 40kg. 15 t2b

On the early week we had two different badminton sessions with Tuomas, great conditioning pieces. One rest day on Tuesday. On Thursday Tuomas came to my place to move some barbell. We went for power cleans and metcon.

Barbell cycling.

• 10 x 60kg
• 10 x 70kg
• 5 x 80kg
• 5 x 85kg
• 3 x 90kg
• 3 x 95kg
  

No plan whatsoever. To this entire session. Didn't have my brain with me prior to this one. But when we got our hands on the barbell, things started to get clearer. I built the weights up by feeling. First some brabell cycling with lighter loads, then cut the reps and added the kilos on the barbell. After the workout I realized those 3x95kg lifts are rather heavy to me as my PR on power clean is probably 105kg if I recall it correctly.

I lifted the first couple of sets as touch'n'go style, and then maybe from 85kg on it was all singles. Lift, drop and lift again. This was a great lifting session actually.

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 15 push press @ 40kg
• 15 toes-to-bar's

Just something quick to get some heart rate up. Nothing serious. Didn't time this one at all. Just focused on going unbroken on presses, and aimed to do big sets on t2b's. Got them unbroken for couple of rounds, then in the end I had to struggle with those, and had to break them to something like 10 on the first try and then some doubles and triples to finish the core burn, The combination of these movements was actually quite ugly. Light barbell so that you have to smash it ub and then not a huge number of t2b's so you try to go all the way on those.

Sunday 9.8: Run, Row

Sunday. Wod, 8 rounds of: 500m row, 400m run. time, 32min

This Sunday my first feeling was that it better be about just conditioning. No need for strength nor metcon session. Just go with the flow. It turned out to be row / run session. About 4min pace at each of those elements. My home street back and forth is quite precisely 400m but there's some elevation on the street so that makes a difference in workouts. Rowing for long distances makes my butt numb on the rower so doing this kind of sets are much better to me. This worked well for the purpose I was looking at on this one.

Wod. Time, 32min

• 8 rounds of:
• 500m row
• 400m run
  

Saturday 8.8: Pull-ups, Squats, Lunges

Saturday. AM. Pull-ups 5x20 reps. PM. Back squats 6-4-2 (80, 120kg). Emom x 12min: 10 reverse lunges @ 50kg.

After breakfast we took our bikes and headed to Klaukkala's track. It's about 3km from our house so it's quite a good day trip to ride there with this entourage.

Pull-ups.

• 5 x 20 pull-ups
  

While the family and kids hassled around, climbed, ran, jumped and swang from different objects I did couple of pull up sets. Casual 100 reps during this trip. Those definitely felt in the upcoming days in my lats. This is pretty much my favorite playground with the kids. Seems like they love it too. There's plenty of space to do their thing. Plus daddy can do some training in the meanwhile.

Strength.

• 6-4-2 @ 80, 90, 100kg
• 6-4-2 @ 90, 100, 110kg
• 6-4-2 @ 100, 110, 120kg
  

Some progression I did in the end of last year. That worked very well so I figured doing it again. Haven't been able to squat lately as my left knee has been bothering me. Today it was great so I went down and up for some time.

Lunges.

• Emom x 12min
• 10 reverse lunges @ 50kg

The purpose of this was to make my legs cry more. I've been longing for that feeling of having my legs murdered on squats so it has definitely not been an easy period. Anyway, this day was very good.

Friday 7.8: C&J, Lunges, T2b, Accessories

Friday. Emom x 12: 2 clean and jerk @ 80kg. Wod, 5 rounds of: 5 c&j @ 60kg, 20 lunges, 12 t2b, 20 lunges. Time, 13.30. Accessories, cable stuff.

It was about time to go lift some weights and drop them to the ground. It turned out to be barbell overhead for barbell work, 13 min metcon and some isolated movements with my newly acquired toy called the Fitness pulley cable.

Barbell.

• Emom x 12 minutes
• 2 clean and jerks @ 80kg

There's no doubt there's something freaking awesome to put weight overhead and drop it to the ground. No questions asked. Overhead is definitely not the smoothest movement for me. I believe it mostly relates to the lack of my shoulder mobility which occasionally makes the move feel awkward, and the heavier the weight, the more unnatural it feels. Anyway, today these clean and jerks felt great.

Wod. Time, 13.30

• 5 clean and jerks @ 60kg
• 20 lunges
• 12 toes-to-bar's
• 20 lunges
  

I stuck to the same movement pattern once I had it going. Some c&j's to start each round, then heading to t2b's. There's 20 lunge distance between the two stations so this came to my mind that I'd like to burn some legs between those two. Okay, 20 lunges is quite a small number of reps so that didn't directly affect my leg capacity but probably during the course of the workout, it had some sort of effect definitely. Other than that, not much to say. I went unbroken on both movements and was feeling good all the way. This was under control.

Accessories.

• "Fitness Pulley Cable"
• Triceps / Lats
  

I bought this thing called the pulley cable. That means to say I can hang it around my Yoke station or on a pull-up bar. The idea is that I can do some isolating movements on triceps and different style of pulling versions to target upper body. At this point I'm happy to this purchase.

 

Wednesday 5.8: Kbs, Sled pull + Badminton

Wednesday. AM. Wod, 6 rds of: 25 kbs @ 32kg, 20m sled pull. PM: Badminton 1h

Body was kind of hammered. Somehow all the work put in lately and short rest periods accumulated and it was almost time for a recovery day. However, the weather was perffect and as I watched the park next to our back yard, there was no other option but to grab a kettlebell and do something. I bought a rope for our kids some weeks ago, and realized it fits my sled perfectly. I haven't used that sled practically at all in a long time. Mostly because the diameter is of wrong size. Normal weights do not fit through the upside bar. But I have 10kg plates that do fit, plus it's "handy" to place some dumbbells on board.

Workout.

• 6 rounds of:
• 25 kettlebell swings @ 32kg
• 20m sled pull, standing

So the goal was to do a big set of kb swings each round, then burn forearms a little more with this standing rope climb. I mostly did unbroken sets on the kb, 4-5 rounds. I remember having to drop it at least on the last round at around 17-18 reps. Or maybe "having" is not the right answer. I just dropped. No excuses.

The rope pull seemed like a great movement. I have done that with a longer rope some years ago when I had the Rogue version of the rope. Anyway, good combination of movements. In the evening I had another conditioning piece in the form of badminton with Tuomas.

Tuesday 4.8: Run, Clean, Hspu, Air squats

Tuesday. Wod, 6 rounds of: 10 hang power clean @ 60kg, 15 hspu, 30 air squats. Time, 17.20.

It was an active day even though I recorded only one metcon for the day. I had to take my car to an annual service check. The place is about 3km away from our place so I ran back and forth during the day. Once in the morning, and once in the afternoon. In addition to that, I went walking around Klaukkala with the family twice during the day, went grocery shopping in the evening and squeezed this metcon during lunch hour.

Workout. Time, 17.20

• 6 rounds of:
• 10 hang power clean @ 60kg
• 15 handstand push-ups
• 30 air squats

This was a great metcon. Something that can be pushed through unbroken but so that it would be mental towards the end. It's difficult to say what was the most difficult point in this one. Maybe hspu's were the element that became the most challenging to keep smashing unbroken. But maybe it was the overall fatigue that little by little crawled in. I'm not sure if the last set of hspu's was unbroken or not. At least other than that it was. Cleans and squats were. Great combination of movements.

Monday 3.8: Row, Squat + Badminton

Monday. AM: Wod, 4 rounds of: 25 cal row 8 back squat @ 80kg. PM: Badminton 1h

It was about time to get some crossfit under my belt. Total of 7 days with total rest of pure crossfit stuff is a lot. That has probably happened like never. But for sure I felt tired after all those days so it definitely wasn't a rest week. But something positive happened to me as my left knee that has bothered me for quite some time, started feeling better on towards the end of the week. That enabled me to do some squats today.

Wod.

• 4 rounds of:
• 25 cal row
• 8 back squat @ 80kg
  

I had a looming headache building up in the beginning of the session but I thought it might go away after I get some body moving. Well, it didn't. Just got worse by the round. After 3 rounds it was quite nasty, especially every time I put the barbell back on the rack and the tension released, it was like a tsunami of blood bursting in to my head and giving a nasty pain. After 4 rounds it was intolerable and had to call it quits.

I felt miserable for some time and had no other option but to go to get a nap. Thank god it was possible. Not a self-evident thing nowadays with 3 little kids. Finally, couple of kids came crawling beside me which was super cute. After I woke up, feeling was like from another planet. I was ready for the rest of the day.

Conditioning.

• 1 hour of badminton
  

In the evening I was like a super man already. It's so rare to get a nap in my system that it definitely makes a difference. Evening was pure conditioning as we went for a badminton session for 60 minutes. The level of our skills is growing by the week so it's getting better and better, and you have to work more to get the points. That makes a good sweaty session and equals to a long conditioning piece.

Monday 27.7 - Sunday 2.8: Decorating

Week 31. This week was quite a hassle as we decided to redo our terrace. Beforehand the terrace ran on two sides of our house. The main terrace is on our back yard, including the outdoor dinner table for 8 persons, 3 person sofa and lots of room to hang around and space for kids to play around. The other terrace is what we call the sauna terrace as there is another entrance from the utility room which goes straight to our shower and sauna.

The plan was to update the visual effect of the entire terrace. That's about 80-90 square meters which is rather large terrace in general. Purpose was also to expand it in couple of spots, and lift about 1/3 of the terrace's floor (=sauna terrace) which used to be about 30 centimeres lower than the main terrace.

It took us exactly 7 days and 70 hours during that week. We are very satisfied to the outcome of the operation. It's at least as good as we envisioned it beforehand. I can already now see that the entire family seems to be happy about the change, and everyone has started to spend more time outdoors at the "main terrace", "sauna terrace" or "sun deck".

Couple of pictures of the outcome.