Sunday 28.12: Sotts Press, Filthy Fifty

Sunday. Snatch mobility drills, sotts press. Benchmark workout Filthy Fifty. Time, 23.33.

Sunday was time for a benchmark workout. I browsed through some archives and found an interesting one named Filthy Fifty. It's been a while since I did it last time and my memories are quite horrific about this one. My body felt a little wrecked after breakfast so it was only suitable that we went to the gym later in the afternoon.

Mobility.

• Burgener warm-up drills
• Sotts press 5x5 (20kg)

Prior to the metcon I did lots of mobility stuff to get my body loosened up and ready for the metcon. Most importantly, to improve my mobility in hips and shoulders. There are some tightness that needs to be worked on. Coach Burgener has awesome tools for this so I've been following he's tips on those occasions where I have enough time.

Today I also did something I haven't been able to earlier. Well, I've done sorts presses with a pvc pipe and with another kind of pipe that weighs couple of kilos. But doing it with a barbell has been off limits this far. At least I don't remember doing them with 20kg bar.

It wasn't as natural as I'd like it to be and look like but I'm getting there. These steps aren't always huge but the most important thing is I'm getting to the right direction. And that's definitely what's happening. This last half a year has been a big thing considering my mobility, in both hips and shoulders.

My back rounds a bit when I'm in the rock bottom position of the overhead squat. That can be seen in those sotts presses. I'm not feeling like home in there but this position is already possible in general and that's a big thing for me.

Recap

Filthy Fifty. Time, 23.33

• 50 box jumps, 61cm
• 50 jumping pull-ups
• 50 kettlebell swing, 16kg
• 50 walking lunges
• 50 knees-to-elbows
• 50 push press, 20kg
• 50 back extensions
• 50 wall ball shots, 10kg
• 50 burpees
• 50 double unders

Lot of action going on in here! First of all, this was the first time I did this workout with rx'd box jumps. Previous times it's been a bench for about 40cm. That's a totally different game and I noticed it right away on the first 2 elements. Box jumps got to my legs and they weren't so fresh for the jumping pull-ups. For some reason I had no pulling power on the "pull-ups". I really don't know what the standard is for the jumping pull-ups. Box took me 1:55 and jumping pull-ups 3:05.

Kb swings were like I wasn't doing anything, it was feather light weight. Got them unbroken all the way, it took 1:42. I'm used to moving double the weight, pretty much the only bell I'm handling is the 2-pood version.

Walking lunges were completed by stepping around the gym. Had to stand up at some time of the round, after thirty something. Those took 1:31. K2e's were bad. I thought I'd rock them but that was not the case. Got them something like 8-8-8-6, and from then on I have no memory at all. That also took some of the intensity off because I had to come down from the pull-up bar. Total time for the k2e was 3:34.

Push press was luckily light weight, completed them in 30-10-10 reps with a total time of 1:58. Back extensions were done in the same manner with same rep scheme, and those took about the same time, 1:49.

Then the heavy breathing began. Wall balls, burpees and double unders. Until this point this had not been the best intensity I could imagine. Had to substitute the wb's to moving 10kg bumper plate up and down. I pushed the plate strong up in the air as if I was throwing a wb, and held my hands up there to "receive" the ball coming back from the wall. Got these done in 3 sets, most likely 20-15-15 reps, time was 2:16.

Burpees were awful! Those bastards took me 4:42, and they totally beat me up. I'm kind of disappointed in not being mentally strong enough to keep pounding my chest to deck continuously. Because I strongly believe burpee is a movement where you actually can move all the time. It's a conscious decision to stop moving. I got these done in sets of 10 reps. Those took an eternity.

Final movement was double unders. Simple at this stage of the workout. I just couldn't grab the jump rope right away. It's quick to go through them anyway, it was 0:53 for this final element, in sets of 30 and 20 reps.

Good workout for sure. Not awesome intensity in the beginning but towards the end it got serious. In the beginning it was more like muscle burn and I couldn't push through for example 50 k2e's. That was impossible. That caused me to have rest periods and breathing was well under control throughout the first 15 minutes.

This stuff is incredible. Each event from the 2009 Crossfit Games. The year our very own Mikko Salo dominated the Games. Crossfit HQ has posted each individual event for both men and women on their Youtube channel. Probably the best way to spend a weekend, enjoy!

Tuesday 16.4: Back squats

Tuesday. 5-5-5-3-2 (max 130kg). L-sit hold.

I've done some benchmark workouts the previous days so it was time to skip metcons for today and concentrate in strength training. Toni is having a metcon-full week and it was time to go for another long workout.

Strength. 5-5-5-3-2 (100, 110, 120, 125, 130kg). My goal was to do sets of 5 reps and hopefully push it through 130kg. Well, that was not even close! I made it with 120kg, then at 125 I took 3 reps and a double at 130kg. I got the third one as well but that was assisted by Toni. My warm-up was good and legs felt good but I suppose all those tough workouts had their share in my strength training. Last time I squatted it was after a rest day and I hit a bit heavier weights that time.

Cashout. Tried for how long it's possible to L-sit. 2 attempts, 36 seconds at first try.

• 2 x ME L-sit hold. 36sec, 22sec

Back extensions

Toni's workout. Ring hold for starters, 3-round metcon and 3x15 (50kg) bench press for cashout.

• 3 rounds of
• 30 lunges
• 50 squats
• 25 back extensions
• Metcon's time 18.41

Tuesday 12.3: Rest day

Tuesday. Rest day.

In the morning my feeling was that my body wants to have a break so I decided to sleep a bit longer and chill out for one day. Tomorrow I'll get back on track with my programming. Toni decided to go and train solo. Well, Elias who is a newcomer and has decided to make a life changing decision to start training hard, was also at the gym with Tony the Pony, this one is a disciplinary guy!

Toni's workouts. Time 19.40.

• 50 kettlebell swings, 20kg
• 50 sit-ups
• 50 push presses, 20kg
• 50 wall balls, 15kg plate
• 50 back extensions
• 50 ring rows
• 50 push-ups

Yep, Jenny Labaw completes 150 reps on 13.1, one-legged...

Taking on King Kong, not the lightest of the workouts

Saturday 5.1: Back squat, deadlift

Saturday. Technique for deadlift. Workout 10-8-6-4-2 of back squats and deadlift. Mobility

Pauliina joined me in that training. Toni had a rest day. My plan was to concentrate on grinding my technique on the deadlift moves. I took some deadlift sets after a good and proper warm-up. As the main workout of the day I planned to go for a combination of squats and deadlifts with weights around 75% of my max loads.

Back extensions

Deadlift technique. One of the beasts at our Box threw me a link to T-Nation's web page where the guys are giving tips to good deadlift technique. I had to absorb the text and was anxious to try the five tips out as this is of the main focus areas for me in the first quarter of this year. I have troubles in keeping my chest up throughout the lift. Instead, my hip shoots up in the air first and that's why I have to pull the entire load with pure back muscles.

By completing the lift the way it's most efficient (leading with chest) I'd be able to utilize my legs and hip more. That would definitely result in me bringing more weights up. I took a few sets of 4 reps with 90-140kg. I feel my form was rather good up to 120kg but on 140kg I went back to my old routines of shooting the hip in the air first.

Workout. Back squat and deadlifts.

• 10-8-6-4-2
• Back squats, 100kg
• Deadlift, 120kg

My maxes are 135kg for back squat and 170kg for deadlift so these weights are about 75% of max loads. I didn't see it coming that my back would be on fire. I went unbroken for the first round of tens. Then I felt some pressure in my lower back and had to take a short break. The second set - eights - of back squats I took 4+4 and the pressure began to grow. After 8 unbroken deadlifts it started to become bigger than life. I have never had that kind of pressure in my back so I started to feel a bit worried. I still continued to rattle on with the weights for a set of 6 squats, in 3+3, then a set of 6 deadlifts. At this stage the pain in my back was simply too much. I took a single rep of squat and stopped there.

The reason I stopped was because I thought something might be wrong. After moaning for 5-10 minutes I felt good again. I talked to my bro who assured me it was caused by the combination of these two movements that both create burden in lower back. Now, after a couple hours of thinking about it, I don't feel as disappointed as I felt right after the workout because I understand it was due to my programming where I have to pay more attention to. If I knew it was only pain in the muscles, I would have probably moved on but I thought something might be wrong in my body so I had to stop, just 6 reps each before the end.

All in all, I got a high rep workout of two main movements, 24 reps each. I believe this day did good to my development as I got a lot of reps with rather heavy weights and I also got the chance to focus on my dl technique. In the end we took mobility, foam rolling and stretching with Pauliina.

Saturday 6.10: Skills + Press + Filthy Fifty

Saturday. Double unders skills training. Shoulder press 4x3 (max 50kg), push press 4x3 (max 65kg), bench press 5x3 (max 75kg). Filthy Fifty, time 20.32.

What a day! During the weekend there's not such a rush so we had some more time with Toni to do a lot of work and develop ourselves as crossfitters. We took double under training for starters after some warm-up for about 15min. Then strength training for different presses: shoulder, push and bench. Finally I took a metcon that's making a heart burst into flames: Filthy Fifty. The name says it, it is nasty! It took a while to go through the whole program but it was definitely worth it.

See the development, it's remarkable!

DU skills. There has been huge development since the first double under I did maybe two months ago. Today I realized the last bit of double unders. This was the second time we took 15 minutes set of purely double under training together. This was also the second time I got a break through :) It really helps when you see the other guy doing doubles next to you. Then you try to adapt some of it to your moves. I also had some images of Gymnasticswod's Carl Paoli in my head as he was talking about doing single unders with a "power jump", i.e. higher jump. Then as you are confident with that, put more effort to the rope, increase the speed and you find out you are doing double unders in a row while keeping your legs straight. Toni also made progress and was able to go for three doubles in a row, good job.  In the video you'll see the steps I've gone through this far. More videos are in my Youtube channel, videos of Toni as well.

• Double under, single under, double under, single under
• Doubles in a row but moving around the gym
• Doubles in a row, staying on the spot but knees bending in each jump
• Doubles the way they should be done. In a row, staying in the spot and legs straight

Strength. Shoulder press 4x3 (45+50+50+50kg), push press 4x3 (50+55+60+65kg), bench press 5x3 (50+55+60+70+75kg). Toni added 5 kilos to the bench press (80kg) at the end, otherwise we did same weights. These weights are my standing current records so the bar was moving well. It's awkward that the first sets of shoulder presses were more difficult than the last sets. Maybe it shows I need some more warm-up before hitting the kilos. I really enjoyed all these press movements. Now I'm able to do these weights with sets of 3 reps. Toni obviously had something more in the storage but decided wisely to stay with these kilos, focus on the technique and do proper sets, not max out by reaching for that 1 RM.

Push press, 65kg

Filthy Fifty. Time 20.32. Ten movements, 50 reps each, total of 500 reps. Move to next station only after finishing all 50 reps on the movement.

• Box jump
• Jumping pull-ups
• Kettlebell (16kg)
• Lunges
• Knees-to-elbows
• Push press (20kg bar)
• Back extensions
• Wall ball (15kg plate)
• Burpees
• Double unders

On June 28th, I did the same workout. My time in June was 24.32 so there was improvement of 4 minutes... That time I did jumping pull-ups with a 20cm box beneath my legs, today I removed it. Kettlebell was the same, 16kg, which is the heaviest at the gym. Should have probably brought my own one, the 20kg kb. I wasn't able to do practically any knees-to-elbows in June, had never practiced them. Today I was disciplined and went all the way with K2Es. Wall ball is the modification where I use a 15kg plate and do thrusters with that because of lack of wall balls at the gym.

The bench on which I do box jumps is about 40cm, it wasn't that bad at all. We are about to receive a Rogue Fitness official box (60cm) in Mid-October at the gym. It was out of stock when we ordered it so it takes a while. Jumping pull-ups, still not bad. As I looked at the video, I wasn't satisfied with all the reps. The kettlebell was also not that heavy and they didn't get me that bad. However, the KB's handle was so small that my fingers went almost numb as I had to squeeze all my fingers in there. Lunges, still ok, I noticed my breathing getting heavier. Knees-to-elbows was the first movement where I had to think how to push myself through the bad feelings. I went them in sets of 10 and finally sets of 5 because my knees just wouldn't obey me and stayed too low.

The beginning of Filthy Fifty

The push press went in sets of 25+15+10. It felt it's flying up, still I didn't want to attempt do them unbroken or in two sets because I think it would've been a bad decision because there were more movements still ahead: back extensions, wall balls, burpees and double unders. I had that burning feeling in shoulders so I figured it is smarter to do them in smaller sets.

Back extensions were also in similar sets: 25+15+10. Wall ball was disgusting. That 15kg plate I was moving up to full extension and down to deep squat caught my breath big time. I mostly took sets of 10 reps, the beginning was 20, then tens and finally fives. Then, the most difficult part. After 400 reps at this stage, facing 50 burpees is something beyond comprehension. The first movements went on nicely but approximately a bit before the middle of the workout the problems began and movements went in broken sets. The burpees were anyway clearly the toughest. I took 5x10 reps. At 30, I genuinely felt I'm going to pass out, the feeling was surreal. I always want to push through at those moments but this time I wasn't sure if it's ok. I sprayed some water at my face and took the last sets. Then the feeling vanished and I moved to the last movement, double unders. Sets of 10+10+10+18+2. Time 20.32. See the last reps and comments below.

Final wrap of the Filthy Fifty

Thanks Toni for encouraging and calling me names at some points ;) It really helped and made me push harder on the movements. I was happy I was able to do all those movements, especially knees-to-elbows, with which I had some problems last time so I didn't do them practically at all. This time all the movements were "pure". Now I'm feeling awesome! The day consisted of skills + strength + 20min metcon. The schedule for the rest of the evening: food, recovery, food, mobility and stretching, food, sleep.