Saturday. OHS, 10 sec eccentric, 10 sec pause (up to 65kg). Close grip bench press triples (up to 96kg).
There was no there option but to focus on barbell work. I wasn't going to get my heart beat up because my throat was more sore in the morning than it has been in the past couple of days. Other than that I feel great. Went to the gym at noon with mobility stuff in my mind. It turned out to be overhead squats and bench presses.
OHS.
Overhead squat
10 second eccentric phase, 10 second pause at the bottom
40, 50, 60, 60, 65, 60kg
The reason behind this is mobility for snatch. This was way different than normal overhead squat. It was a slow motion movement. 10 seconds to lower my butt to the ground, then 10 seconds to hold at the bottom position. Idea is to see improvements in mobility in the long run. The weights were not super heavy at all. Mostly it felt in my wrists as it took 20 seconds per set to hold on to the bar. I felt relieved when I dropped the barbell.
Recap
Bench.
Close grip bench press triples
70, 80, 85, 90, 92, 94, 96kg
Bench never gets my heart rate up and it's kind of an easy element so it suited perfectly for today. Normally bench grip width is wider but this time I narrowed it to the same width as when cleaning or jerking. That feels much more natural anyway for me, now I realized that fact.
This felt ridiculously good. There is no doubt this is some sort of PR for me. I have never pressed these weights for a triple. And even the last set felt like there's more in the tank. Didn't have a spotter so I didn't dare to go heavier anymore. This was a huge positive surprise for me. In the end I took some box jump overs just for fun. But not too much to keep heart rate down.
Saturday. AM: Barbell, clean and jerk 5x5 (max 80kg). Metcon, with a 12min running clock, 4min power clean (60kg), 4min burpee, 4min row. PM: Skills, double unders (300 reps). Close grip bench 5x5 (max 85kg). Ring dips, 60 reps.
I'm having a free weekend with little being planned so that means lots of sleep, eating loads of protein and veggies, plus surprisingly, working out and taking care of my body. In the morning we went together with Pauliina. Main focus was on the cruel metcon, 12 minutes of pain. In the evening I dropped my baby to her friend's place as they were planning her upcoming wedding. That opened up a time slot for me for another training session. Morning's session was so tough on my lungs that I promised to myself this would be more skills and meathead oriented.
Barbell.
Clean and jerk 5's (60, 70, 80, 60kg)
I just went by feeling and the feeling was the weights were heavy. From the get go it was a bit on the heavier side, no matter the load on the barbell. So I climbed up and tried to focus on good form at all times, not rushing at all. Purpose was not to just get the reps done but to focus on power clean technique and then strong lockout. Afterwards looking I'd say my foot work was a bit off, should have been able to create more stability by throwing the front foot more forward. Power cleans felt light and easy today!
This was a nasty one! I've done same wod with clean and jerks earlier this year. Today my body was not ready for those jerks at all. This workout was drilled in my thoughts for couple of days so there was no other option but to carry it out somehow. I only changed the c&j's to power cleans, with same weight though. Now as I look at the past workout, I realize rowing and burpees were in reversed order but that's probably not a big deal.
Took the cleans in sets of 5 reps from the very beginning on purpose. It was obvious they are gonna burn at some stage so it'd better be small sets with short breaks in between. They really got to me at some point but I was able to make it till the end as planned. Hadn't thought of any certain number but I wanted to make those 5's all the way and got up to 45 reps in total.
Burpees were the second element. I stopped the last clean about 2 seconds before the time cap of power cleans and it took me 10 seconds to get back on track before hitting first burpee. Had no plan, decided to go by feeling because this was gnarly. After 12 reps the first minute had come full and I decided to rest for a couple of seconds. Like that would help anything =) In burpees it really doesn't but that was a mental break at least. My pace was around that 12 reps per min, then on the last 2 minutes I sped up with 1 one more burpee to make it 13 reps in the both minutes. I wanted to get 50 reps done.
It's not 1 or 2 seconds after last burpee to get seated on the rower. I took my first stroke after about 15 seconds had passed on the clock. My pace was 1:55 throughout the entire row. It felt tough all the time and my lungs were screaming for help. After the time ran out I was happy to finishing this whole thing. It took some time to get a hold of myself. My lungs hurt couple of hours after the workout still. Something you'd experience after giving your all to a workout. Fran brings this kind of sentiments to me every time.
Skills.
Double unders
Sets of 30-50, for a total of 300 reps
In the evening I decided to let the breathing be rather steady and work on skills plus do some strength I don't usually do, bench press, but with a close grip to work more on triceps that I find more useful in all kinds of presses, jerks and hspu's, rather than just chest. I know, this was old school gym stuff, and definitely not my favorite thing but it felt right for today. It started with double under skills training and that was fun, of course. This is a movement we used to struggle with my main man Toni when we started our crossfit journey in the beginning, about 2 years ago.
At some point we decided to correct this flaw in our system and skipped rope in every single training session for warm-up. We performed in turns and tried to give each other some clues how to get it smoother. It took months to get the skills to a level we would later on be proud of. It was a long road but worth doing. It's actually a cool movement, and demands the entire body to be in control. Today I did unbroken sets of 30, 40 and 50 reps to reach a total of 300 double unders. Felt solid.
Barbell.
Close grip bench press 5x5 (70, 80, 85, 85, 80kg)
It's ben some time since doing any sort of bench press. It's a different move whether you have a close or wide grip on this movement. I'd think in close grip you're able to move lighter loads. Or is it depending on the athlete, I don't know. Anyway, this was okay but a little boring. Didn't get sweaty at all. It was kind of cool to get them done but I didn't get anything out of it in the big picture. Can't see myself knocking these on a regular basis
Rings.
Ring dips, 60 reps, in sets of 10
In the end there was some action on the rings. Dips are always useful stuff, and something that used to be my goat but nowadays it's on a totally different level. It might be advantageous to thrown in couple of tens every now and then in the cool down section. After having done strength / metcon, just work a few sets of ring dips to get comfortable with them. Today I did 60 reps, definitely not for time. The entire evening session was slow tempo training.
It was a great day of training in general. Especially the morning session took my breath away, great crossfit stuff, general physical preparedness.
Thursday. Skills, bar muscle-ups (25 reps). Strength, close grip bench (max 87.5kg). Ring dips.
I had been waiting for this day for several days. It was like Christmas in September. What would be that much fun. To drive to Pirkkola and practice on bar muscle-ups! How little can make a crossfitter happy about =) I took a trip there right after work, did a quick skills workout, then went home to pick up my baby, and headed to the gym for another quick session.
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups, 25 reps (PR 10, 5, 5, 5 reps)
Pirkkola is the place to be for this skill practice. It's my favorite outdoor training place. You can practically do anything you want out there. We've hit couple of HC Triplets there too with Toni. This pull-up bar is perfect for my purposes. There are plenty of room both sides of the bar and I can utilize a big kip. At the gym it would be more like a strict muscle-up if I had the skills for that.
I took a short warm-up for my shoulders, then couple of strict chest-to-bar pull-ups and toes-to-bar before jumping on the bar and started ripping it. I've done something like 5 reps at max before this day. One time I've been able to do 9 reps in a row with every rep being ugly, landing over the bar with a twist, right side first. Since Pauliina started coaching my muscle-ups I've jumped to next level and currently those mu's look like they should. The movement is evenly balanced and I'm able to use my hips better than before.
The first reps felt so good that I decided to go after a new record. PR was ahead of me. Finally got 10 reps and was happy at that point. I didn't max out totally, there might have been some room still. Took a break and repeated for 5 reps. Actually I took 3 x 5 reps with rest between sets. This totaled 25 reps which is more than I've ever done in one training day. Plus all of these - I mean every single one - were good reps today! That was more than I was ever hoping to complete. I'm super stoked on this!
Couple of hours later I found myself hanging out at the gym indoors doing bench and dips. This was a quick session because of schedule issues. We spent about half an hour at the gym with Pauliina. A lot shorter warm-up than normal was compulsory but I got ready enough for bench. It's been weeks / months since last bench session. Took 'em this time with close grip. The point being giving more pressure on arms / triceps, and thus focusing on translating the benefits to olympic lifts.
Same focus was on weighted ring dips. There's would be a point getting my arms stronger, that would definitely make my overhead strength more legit. I got inspired by Austin Malleolo, Games level athlete who talked about this just currently. Don't worry, I'm not gonna start meatheading frequently but there might be a point in that. Dips are something I have increased gradually to my training but bench is a rarity.
Recap
This training day was all about bar muscle-ups. I've been waiting eagerly to find a good place to knock a bunch of them and hoping my form has stayed good. Luckily the trend continues. And, I'd like to see this develop also technique on ring muscle-ups too! Should be able to go for multiple reps on rings too.
