Tuesday. Shoulder press e2mom x 30min. Emom x 18. 1st: 7-10 hspu, 2nd: 12 kb swing (32kg), 3rd: rest.
It would be an understatement to say my hip flexors are on fire. Had to be careful with today's training session not to burden those areas too much. That's how it turned out to be strict press and emom conditioning piece in the end.
Overhead.
Every 2:00, for 30 minutes
0-10min: 3 shoulder press @ 60kg
10-20min: 4 shoulder press @ 55kg
20-30min: 5 shoulder press @ 50kg
The plan for this took shape during the session itself. Started with triples at 60kg. That started to get challenging but I wanted to continue pressing. Decided to take 5kg off the barbell and add one more rep. Continued this for another 10 minutes, and repeated the same protocol for the last third. My shoulder took hit on this one. It really fatigued them as planned!
Conditioning.
Every minute on the minute x 18 minutes
1st min: 7-10 handstand push-ups
2nd min: 12 kettlebell swing @ 32kg
3rd min: rest
This turned out to be a very challenging portion. Especially because of those shoulder presses beforehand. I went down for the first set of handstand push-ups and was surprised how difficult those felt. My shoulders were shot already in the beginning =)
It was 7-10 reps per minute, changing a bit by the minute. It was just too much to hold on to 10 reps. Couldn't do them unbroken anyway, except the first round of 10 reps. Kb swings were much more easier to handle. I needed that extra minute recovery before going for next round of hspu's.
Morning workout. All that bench work made my chest and shoulders were tight big time. Mobility made tricks and I got them ready for work. Squats were in the game to get strength in there, and then a sprint of heavy breathing in the end.
This was continuance to earlier work with this same rep scheme. Singles in strict press, push press, push jerk, and split jerk. Idea is to do 3x1 reps at the same weight, then add weight and change the style of putting the bar overhead. Shoulder presses were okay. The second rep was a battle as there wasn't enough aggression. Third one was the best of those.
Push presses went fine, those were the most steady reps of these all in my opinion. On the push jerks the weight was 85kg which is the heaviest I've ever put on straight hands so that was a bit different game. Couple of days ago I took 85kg for a single and it came up nicely. Today the first rep was ok, second left slightly in front which I couldn't save. On the third attempt I gathered some mental strength and put it overhead with ease.
As I lowered it back down on my front rack I didn't bring elbows in front which made the bar crash on my collarbones. Hurt like hell. I have a rip in one of my left hand fingers so that's the reason I didn't take it down in a normal way. That was a mistake as that collarbone got instantly swollen. I realized it on the first and only attempt of 95kg split jerk. The pressure was huge in that painful area, and I had to stop jerking right away. Went to see that in the mirror. Looked nasty. But it felt great to get 95kg up even though it definitely was a bit ugly.
Strength.
Every minute on the minute x 10min
3 touch'n'go back squat @ 120kg
This was written to do these exactly as t'n'g squats. No stopping on top. This was a lot of fun. Sweat and breathing were more intense than normally, and legs were burning big time. The third rep was tight on the sets, and after couple of minutes this turned out to be surprisingly mental stuff.
Metcon. Time, 2.20
30 burpees
30 box jump overs
I was already in a bit of a hurry so I had to start working if I wanted to do some conditioning piece. This was just a short one. Plan was to do two metcons but there was no time for that. This was anyway an awesome way to get heart beat up in a second. This kind of work would be ideal as interval work. Let's say something similar with 2-3min breaks in between, and repeat for a number of rounds. Or maybe 2min amraps of: 30 burpees and rest of time box jump overs.
Thursday. Shoulder press x 10 @ 50kg. Push press x 10 @ 60kg. Push jerk x 10 @ 70kg. Bench, 3x10 (up to 80kg). Metcon, 5rds of: 20 ghd, 20 hang power clean (40kg).
Great time, as it always is when Jasper hits the gym with me. We did pretty much the same elements in this session. He worked on his pull-ups while I tried to master overhead strength. Then we got some bench press done, and finally a good metcon to burn the forearms big time.
Overhead.
Shoulder press 1x10 @ 50kg
Push press 1x10 @ 60kg
Push jerk 1x10 @ 70kg
It was cool to hit longer sets of overhead strength. More like muscle endurance. The entire idea was to go touch'n'go in each set. No stopping to breath at any moment. I mean on the front rack position. Actually I don't think I stopped overhead either. But had I took a pause that would have been allowed. In my head.
There weren't that proper warm-ups before I took the first set so shoulder presses felt a bit stiff on the shoulders but went smoothly anyway. Probably the first time I've ever done 50kg for this many reps. That was actually pretty cool to realize. Push presses were maybe the easiest part of these three.
Last set of push jerks felt awkward for 2 reps but then I got a good hold and great rhythm for each rep. That made it possible to keep the barbell bouncing touch'n'go rep by rep. I've done more of longer sets at decent weights in metcons in the past weeks so I was looking this from the bright side already beforehand. All sets went as planned.
Bench.
Bench press 3x10 reps (70, 75, 80kg)
Last set was only 8 reps though
We moved directly to different type of press strength. Bench was ahead of us. Jasper is a monster with this movement, and is a mile ahead of me. I took 10x20, and 5x60kg to get used to this element, then started pumping the sets. We went alternating each set, Jazz just took a notch heavier sets.
First set was easy, no prob. Second set was okay up to somewhere at 7-8 reps, then I had to push more but it was still something that I was able to manhandle. I knew the last set was going to be tough if it was 80kg but I stood up to the challenge. It was alright to 6 reps, the next one was heavy, the 8th of course heavier so at this point I was just hoping for good things to happen but the wall came just like that on the 9th rep.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
20 ghd sit-ups
20 hang power clean, 40kg
Stole this one from Rich Froning's "What's Rich Doing?" clip that I posted earlier this week. The difference was he made it with 60kg. Got 3 rounds of cleans unbroken. Then had to divide it to 13-7 and 14-6 on the last round. My forearms were shot. Actually they were gone after about 2 rounds. It was a good fight after that. Even though the barbell was only 40kg it started to weigh a lot. But mostly it was that I started to lose my grip. Just couldn't feel my hands anymore.
I dare to say ghd's are strong for me. Those went smoothly, and unbroken each round. On the last round I had to huff and puff a bit more but it was obvious to go without breaks on this movement. Very good combo to mix these two. And it was cool to throw in a high rep cleans in a metcon. Different kind of stimulus. This entire day was more of a muscle endurance type of training.
Friday. Overhead singles. Metcon, 5rds of: 10 thruster (40kg), 15 k2e, 20 cal row. Time, 13.20
Morning gym. It actually felt pretty good from the get-go. Strength portion was progression that started about a week ago. Various styles of overhead press or jerk. My right hammy is still recovering so I didn't go all the way to split jerks. Metcon was a great one.
Overhead.
Shoulder press 1-1-1 (63kg)
Push press 1-1-1 (73kg)
Push jerk 1-1-1 (83kg)
Last time the weights were 60-70-80-90 kilos. Today I added 3kg to each movement. Shoulder presses were okay. I took 'em on video and realized on the second rep that I push the barbell too much in front in the beginning. So I tried to fix that for the final rep. It felt better.
Push presses were the easiest one. For some reason they felt shaky in the beginning but got better each rep. Push jerks are the ones I have the most issues. That seems to be some kind of mobility issue. I feel tight when having a close grip with barbell overhead. If I'm doing split jerks, that doesn't bother but in this kind of power position it feels a bit awkward. I think 85kg is the ultimate heaviest I've ever push jerked so these were pretty close.
Metcon.
5 rounds of:
10 thruster, 40kg
15 knees-to-elbows
20 cal row
Thrusters are the king. I used to think if there was only one movement you were able to do for the rest of your life, it would be thruster. So today it was 10 reps to start the round, then knees-to-elbows. An element I don't remember when was the last time. Must have been a year or so. Toes-to-bar is the more classical way to do pretty much the same thing. That didn't feel good in my leg so I subbed it to this one.
Got these unbroken in every round. Last 2 rounds were more of a battle but something I was able to push through. It was more dependent of grip strength. It started to get slippery at times but I was able to re-grip at the right times.
Overhead strength
Rowing was 20 calories, that equalled to something like 270 meters if I looked it correctly on the first round. Don't know why but completing 300 meters feels easier than 20 calories. There is something with the calories that mess with my head. One calorie is about the same as one stroke. This was a good workout. My strategy was to go unbroken on the movements and took the recovery between stations. You can see the first 10 minutes of the wod in the video below.
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.
Damned my body felt the past week of training today. It hurt basically everywhere. But my arms / triceps were really smashed. Today didn't include any strength portion as such but there were two metcons, different elements but the ideology was identical. Good ones.
Metcon. Result, 90 reps (round of 12's + 6 deads)
7min amrap
2-2-4-4-6-6… of:
Deadlift, 100kg
Handstand push-up
This was a good preparation for benchmark workout Diane. Same movements but the movement pattern is different, that is 21-15-9. It was kind of sick that hspu's were easier for me this time. Probably would have been the other way around but my back was lit up pretty early on which made it challenging to pull. It didn't feel heavy at all but that lower back was just all out on fire. It didn't feel good to pull from the ground.
Had to break the deads at some point but hspu's went unbroken up to the round of 10's. The last full round (12's) was 8-4. They were surprisingly easy to complete. I thought hspu's would have become an issue at some point but that was not the case. Had to walk around the gym and stretch out my back before I was able to think about the next workout. My plan was to hit the same wod that mr. Froning did one day. It would have been 70kg power cleans and pistol squats in the same format, ascending ladder for 7min.
Metcon. Result, 118 reps (round of 14's + 6 jerk)
7min amrap
2-2-4-4-6-6… of:
Push jerk, 40kg
Box jump overs
So this was created on the spot. I thought about what would not create that much pressure in the lower back. While I was doing my brainstorming back started to feel okay again. Still, I didn't wanna risk anything so the two elements turned out to be light push jerks and box jumps in a bit different style. The point was to jump on top of the box, then drop down to the other side of the box. That constitutes one rep.
Because the barbell was light, I was able to move faster throughout the workout. The bar was this light because my triceps were sore as hell for the entire day. On this workout the loading was right on the spot.
I was able to move all the time, and completed the repetitions unbroken, each round. Same with the box jumps. My strategy on this kind of box jumps is to drop down sideways and bounce right back on top of the box. Makes it effective for me.
Tuesday. Back squat triples (up to 140kg). Overhead strength singles (up to 90kg). Emom x 20min: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squat. Accessory, 3rds of: 12 reverse hyper, 90sec rest, 10 ghd's with pause, 90sec rest.
Long session at the gym. Everything went as planned, and I left with a big smile. It took a while to go through all the planned work but there was no rush so I took my time to improve my fitness level. Squats to kick off the session, then overhead work. Metcon was mental more than anything, and finally some accessory work to strengthen core and lower body.
Strength.
Back squat triples (100, 115, 130, 140, 140, 140kg)
Now I decided to start the session with back squats so my back wouldn't get tight in the process. This worked well, and body felt great for back squats. The first sets were obviously light. It's always awesome to see that 130kg is no biggie for a set. I still remember a time when it was a bit shaky even for a single. There's been a clear development.
Next station was at 140kg. Wasn't light. For sure. But I nailed those anyway, somehow =) Form wasn't beautiful but I'm glad anyway of hitting the weights as planned. I had the option of putting some extra kilos on the barbell if the first set of 140kg would have come up more easily. But the first set was somewhat a battle so I decided to keep it at the same weight for each set.
Recap
Overhead.
Shoulder press 1-1-1 (across 60kg)
Push press 1-1-1 (across 70kg)
Push jerk 1-1-1 (across 80kg)
Split jerk 1-1-1 (across 90kg)
Good one to get some action overhead. Weights were a bit conservative. I mean for singles. Started on strict press, then made it a notch easier by every round by changing the style how to put the bar overhead. But the twist was to add 10kg each time.
This felt great and at this very moment it feels good to do this as some sort of progression. Add little weight per movement and try how far it's possible to go. Push press was relatively the easiest of these four styles when taken into consideration the weight being handled. I took a video of each press/jerk so you'd witness it too. It's been time since jerking serious weight so it felt kind of funny to go at 90kg. Quite steady but I felt it hasn't been possible to jerk heavy lately.
Metcon.
Every minute on the minute x 20min
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats
As you probably know this resembles one benchmark workout. Called Cindy. That is a 20min amrap of the mentioned movement pattern. This was a modified version of doing it in emom style. Even though it was kind of easier, it was still horrible towards the end. It took 31-33 seconds each round to complete the required amount of work so that was as solid as it can be. No difference between rounds.
It just started to burn muscles round by round towards the end more and more. Somewhere in the middle it started to get mental. Pretty much in the same way as in Cindy. I remember last time completing that one, I was mentally exhausted at 8 minutes =) But managed to push through that dark place and come back to a happy place.
Pull-ups were the easiest part of this one. Push-ups started to feel like they are going to kill my triceps. Managed to get them unbroken still. Air squats were not nice either in the end. Kept the breathing high and legs burned. Not as much as I had anticipated but still there was good tension in lower body. Got to say these nanos are darn good in all possible movements you need in crossfit. They are made for squatting! And jumps are also good so I dare to declare these the best shoes ever.
Metcon needed no barbell this time. Pull-up bar and bodyweight movements
Accessory.
3 rounds of:
12 reverse hyper
90 second rest
10 ghd sit-up with 2 second pause at parallel on both descent and ascent
90 second rest
Accessory work to strengthen core and posterior chain. It was nice to have time to work on this kind of extra work. Reverse hypers to put more pressure on posterior chain, and ghd's were done in a different style. That made a big time difference. Regular ghd's with a pause at parallel level on both ways, up and down. Good burn on the core!
Wednesday. Conditioning, 3rds of: 1.000m row, 2min rest. Shoulder press 7x3 (up to 60kg). Intervals, every 3:00 for 21min, perform 20m sled push + 12 burpee.
Morning workout. Conditioning went pretty well but the strength part is always a bit of a struggle in the early morning. Barbell felt heavier than normally. Or actually the bar wasn't that heavy but my limbs felt kind of awkward throughout the session. This is not ideal time of the day for me. But it was great to get a good sweat on!
Conditioning.
3 rounds of:
1.000m row
2min rest between sets
Rowing is something I could basically hit quite soon after walking to the gym. But because it was somewhere 9.00 - 9.30 when it was time to do the work, I took my time in warming up properly before taking the first stroke. Pace was sub 1.50 for each interval. My legs got tired in the middle of the first set =) They started to burn, that shows how "fresh" my body is in the early morning.
For the last two rounds I tried to focus more on the pull with my upper body. Yes, that's definitely not ideal, rowing should be initiated from strong legs but today this lower body would have been out of order for the rest of the session so I had to to this choice.
Traditionally I have ignored shoulder press for strength training. My ideology has been that it's better to have heavier loads overhead in the form of push press / push jerk / split jerk. When you have heavier loads up in the air, it must be more beneficial. This is something that I've tried to implement. Shoulder press is still a great way to test out for pure shoulder strength.
Lately there has been quite a lot of elbow pain. This has occurred more or less in the heavier barbells. Doing shoulder press has not created this kind of pain so I thought it's good to hit some strict press sessions and increase strength in shoulders. It's felt good lately to lift the bar up. Hopefully I can do this stuff in the future as well. It's an awesome feeling to totally burn the shoulders, by any means possible.
Intervals.
Every 3:00, for 21min, perform the following:
20m sled push + 12 burpee
This was created on the spot after presses. Burpees came to my mind first, sled slowly creeped somewhere from the back of my head. Great couplet in my opinion! The purpose of this workout was to go all out from the gates in every set, then maximize the recovery before next session. There would have been no point in taking each interval easily. The point was to go hard.
As this type of workouts usually tend to be, this got tougher towards the end. There was enough recovery between each interval but legs were burning more and more in the last rounds, and breathing was not easy. Actually it always hit me right after the last burpee. That was the toughest part as it felt like someone just hit me in the face at that point. These were quick intervals so it was possible to go 100% pace from the very beginning in all 7 sets.
Sunday. Shoulder press 5-5-5-5-5 (up to 61kg). Emom x 30min. 1st min, 3 power clean (80kg). 2nd min, 12 pistols. 3rd min, 15 push-up. Accessory. 10 ghd's.
Great to get a good long session in the books. No rush, just quality time at the gym. Shoulder press is something that has not been in the system lately. Metcon was long version of emom workout. Then a good bunch of core work in the end. Yammy.
Strength.
Shoulder press 5-5-5-5-5 (50, 55, 57, 59, 61kg)
This has been off the program because I have wanted to push press or jerk the bar overhead. However, it seems that this elbow pain is quite consistent when talking about heavier weights overhead. Shoulder press seemed like a good way to get shoulder burn with lighter weights too, building on pure shoulder strength.
Some time ago I did strict press triples at around 60kg. Today's agenda was 5's all the way. Starting at 50kg, building up to 61kg. I felt good on all of these sets, and happy on being able to push it to 61kg at heaviest. Maybe shoulder press could be the way to get stuff overhead without teasing elbows too much.
Recap
Metcon.
Every minute on the minute x 30min
1st min, 3 power clean, 80kg
2nd min, 12 pistol squat
3rd min, 15 push-up
Long emom. Some time ago I did these much more, 21-30min emoms. Those are usually tough mentally. This was no exception in that sense. Pistols got me in the end. These have usually been mostly bodyweight in my case but today I decided to throw some cleans in the mix. Those worked well. 80kg reps for a triple every third minute. Working on mechanics. The weight itself wasn't the issue, it moved around pretty well.
Pistols were the toughest on this one. Okay, I got them unbroken every round but they were challenging mentally and physically. Those wore my legs out and by mid-workout they felt horrible. I was shaking back and forth when doing those, but got them done anyway as planned. Alternating legs after each rep.
Push-ups are basic element that is rarely seen in my workouts. They are always a good option though so somehow I got them thrown in this workout. This amount was okay. 15-20 was the range. Don't know if 20 would have been too much in the end. On the other hand, I got these done unbroken quite nicely. Breathing stayed under control but on the pistol squats it was probably higher than otherwise.
Acecssory.
100 ghd sit-ups
My hip flexors were on fire because of all the one-legged squats but I still wanted to get some core work done in the form of ghd sit-ups. Took 4 sets of 25 reps, with no timer running in the background. First 2 sets felt fine, third was a notch tougher and the last one was a good battle.
Monday. Shoulder press 7x3 (across, 60kg). Bar mu's 5x7 reps. Cashout, 3 sets of Dog Bone pull-ups.
Sunday was a rest day. My knees were hurting a lot. They must have been inflamed - don't know why - but something in the race took its toll on my body. Haven't used to running for that long. Maybe that was the case. The obstacles were not that heavy anyway so that steady running had its effects. I guess we can all agree running is some sort of goat for me. Here's clear evidence for that. Or maybe I have a bad running technique. Don't know but I had to recover yesterday for the entire day. Just ate, rested and put lotions on my knees.
Strength.
Shoulder press 5x40, 5x50kg
Shoulder press 7x3 (across, 60kg)
Push jerk 3x3 (across, 60kg)
Today lower body felt a lot better but I needed to let it take it easy for one more day. Shoulder press was a perfect way to start the week. My plan was to just hit some presses, without a strict plan. After taking 40kg and 50kg sets I decided to hit couple of triples at 60kg. It turned out to be 7 sets in total as shoulder presses. These felt good all the way. Semi-heavy but something I was able to handle well at these weights.
At the end of all the strict presses I took 3 sets of push jerks at the same weight. That means they were obviously light sets, focusing on explosiveness, quickness, and effectiveness. I took them as pause jerks too, as in pausing in the bottom of the dip for couple of seconds before bouncing up from the hole.
Gymnastics.
Bar muscle-ups 5x7
There was one guy doing so effortless muscle-ups that I got inspired to practice on those too. My plan was to do some sort of sets of pull-ups. Wanted to get a good bunch of them since I wasn't going to do a metcon anyway. So that plan was thrown at the waste bin and this replaced that plan. My lats were burning as much as in high rep pull-up workout. These were big sets for me as my max set if 10 reps.
Sick thing is that I tried different grips on this one. My palms are easily ripped off when doing lots of pull-ups or muscle-ups. I asked this one guy at the gym who happens to be a L2-trainer in his past life. He suggested to try monkey grip instead of regular grip. Tried both of them and maybe that monkey version didn't hurt as much in my palms. Instead, it put more pressure on the wrist and that suited me well. Got to try out this stuff in the future to get a proper perception of what's best in my situation.
Accessory.
Dog Bone pull-ups, 3 sets (10, 7, 9 reps)
This was the second time I touch on the Dog Bone by Rogue. It really is shaped like a dog bone, a big one. This is a good test for grip strength as you can't wrap your fingers around it. Plus when you do pull-ups there, it turns and twists around, which makes an additional difficulty level. I took 3 sets at the end of this session. First set was 10 reps, second one 7 and the last one 9 reps. Especially on the second set my left hand started to slip before pulling strength wore out. This gotta be a good accessory tool to strengthen grip and pulling strength.
Saturday. Gymnastics, emom x 10min: 2 mu's. Strength, strict press (up to 3x62kg). Metcon, 8min amrap of: 8 hspu, 8 hang power clean (50kg). Result, 97 reps.
Finally back in action! Okay I still had to take a magic pill for these hip flexors and that's also the reason why I took it a bit easier on the legs but it sure made good to enter the gym and start working out. Muscle-ups need to be honed a lot, so today was an emom training. Then some strict presses and metcon of hspu's and cleans.
Gymnastics.
Every minute on the minute for 10 minutes:
2 ring muscle-ups
This felt good for real. Doing muscle-ups is not intimidating anymore. It doesn't matter if it's ring or bar mu's, I'm feeling confident and strong. Of course they are not perfect and the unbroken sets are not huge but as I look in the rear mirror I'm very proud how these have turned out. Today's goal was to increase the endurance of muscle-ups. Doing a unbroken set of 2 reps every minute for 10 minutes.
Yes, I can do a double, no problem but I haven't really tested how it feels doing them every minute for a certain period of time. This could be a good progression to build up the number of repetitions per set. Go figure. I'm also happy my feet are much more together than they used to be back in the days. Thus, it feels more controlled.
Muscle-ups
Strength.
Shoulder press
5x40, 5x50, 5x55, 3x60, 3x62, 3x62kg
Putting stuff overhead is awesome. I'd prefer a bit of a heavier barbell but I saved my hip flexors by doing these presses as strict or shoulder press, how you wanna call it. Couple of 5's and then triples for a heavy load. This was a good result for me doing a triple at +60kg. Don't know what my max triple would be but I guess this was the first time doing 3 reps at over 60 kilos. Press is not one of my strengths I suppose.
You'll see the lifts below in the video recap
Press recap
Metcon. Result, 97 reps (6 rounds + 1 hspu)
8min amrap of:
8 handstand push-ups
8 hang power clean, 50kg
I had to think about for a while before coming up with taxing movements that would let my lower body chill in the same time. Hspu's were self evident already yesterday but I didn't think this beforehand that much because I had to kind of look how my body would feel like and what movements it would allow me to do. Eventually cleans paired up with hspu's and definitely as hang power cleans. Weight was light but it was actually good for this metcon because those handstand push-ups started to wear my shoulders down.
I got hspu's unbroken for couple of rounds, then had to start breaking them down after 4-5 reps. Shoulders really felt the damage on this one, very good burn up there. Cleans weren't that bad but I like the fact it was 50kg instead of a heavier bar. The length of the workout wasn't that long so if the bar was 60kg or more it would have slowed me down quite a bit and the purpose of this wod was to go faster.
Metcon
The workouts have been released for the upcoming Crossfit Regionals. It's gonna be a spectacular weekend of working out among the fittest of the fittest. Some day it would be awesome to be on the spot cheering for our idols!
Thursday. AM: Overhead strength, press / jerk (up to 90kg). Intervals, every 4:00min, for 20min, complete 300m row + 10 burpee. PM: Long recovery walk.
In the morning it was time to stuff a monster breakfast in my face before heading to the gym. It was presses and jerks for a while and then finishing it with nasty interval work in the form of Concept2 and burpees. In the evening we were supposed to go squatting but Pauliina suggested we'd take a long work to downtown Helsinki. The weather was perfect and the upcoming spring inspired us to go for this long recovery walk.
Machine straight from hell
Overhead.
Shoulder press, 5x40, 3x50, 1x60, 65kg
Push press, 1x70, 3x70, 1x75, 80, 85kg
Jerk with a pause, 1x85, 85, 90, 90, 90kg
This went totally by feeling. Haven't done shoulder presses pretty much at all in ages. Only in warm-ups when I'm doing overhead strength. Usually the heaviest strict presses are 40-50kg on those warm-up sets. This time I built up to a heavy single which turned out to be 65kg. Next lift at 70kg didn't come all the way up so I push pressed it up.
Push presses were my thing today. This wider grip thing really seems to work. The light pain in left shoulder is not there anymore. I guess my shoulders are just too tight for a narrow grip. Built up to a heavy single of 85kg. My heaviest push press is 90kg so this was pretty close. Didn't go heavier today.
Lastly I took couple of singles of jerks. Mostly with a pause in the dip position. This seems to be a very good drill to find an explosive burst from the hole. I don't say it looks fast and furious but I'm aiming towards that goal.
Recap of presses / jerks
Intervals.
Every 4:00 for a total of 20 minutes, complete:
300m row + 10 burpee
Time each round: (1.21-1.23min)
These were awful! Looks very easy and light on paper but the reasoning behind intervals is that you go 100% from the very first second until you've completed the last rep of each set. That means to say I pulled my ass off on the rower for 300 meters, then hit my chest to deck.
This rower is from another planet than the one at my previous gym. No matter how hard I pulled there, the pace didn't go that fast. Here the rower is identical but an updated version of Concept2. I believe I was able to move it much faster than normally. Pace was around 1.30-1.33 in each interval. That last 100 meter of the sprint was not pleasant.
Intervals
Burpees were as horrible as they can be. Or actually I moved up and down without thinking about it at all. But the second I stopped after 10 reps it hit me like a wall. It was a disgusting feeling =) Had to walk the pain away for a minute. First interval was okay, second one made me think if I want to continue this workout. After third I was in big pain, and the rest was just "think about a happy place" kind of battle in my mind.
It was great to get back in business! After 3 days of laziness (okay, I was sick but anyway) my head was in tilt of not getting any sports done. My system screams for it on a daily basis and I'm definitely not the best of me if I can't get to work on my health and fitness. I started my comeback with classical shoulder strength workout. Plus then worked on some technical issues.
Barbell.
Shoulder press 1-1-1 (60, 65, 70kg)
Push press 3-3-3 (70, 75, 80kg)
Push jerk 5-5-5 (70, 75, 80kg)
Pause push jerk 3-3-3 (60, 60, 60kg)
Technique, snatch with all variations
Yesterday was Pauliina's graduation party. We had some friends and family at our house to celebrate this woman's long journey in the university. I'm very proud of how she managed to warp it up with good grades, job very well done! Pauliina and her mother had put some fancy stuff on the table and me and Kari went to pick up 2 christmas trees for their house in Klaukkala. It's November and they already have the yard full of christmas stuff, awesome! =)
I had planned on the weights way before I touched on the barbell. Definitely wasn't shooting to max the load after two days of not feeling the best of me. Had to stay away from work on Thursday and Friday, then on Saturday I was feeling okay again. Wanted to go for a little jog in the woods but my better half prevented me not to. Good call baby, thanks for that. Shoulder press today felt good, haven't done those in ages, and I guess I've done 70kg presses maybe 3 times in my life. So considering that it felt great!
Push press was also consistent with all weights thrown around. It felt like the bar was in my control all the way. I was able to go touch'n'go u to 75kg but then at 80kg had to stop it in the front rack position after each rep.
On the push jerk 70kg bar was light. Felt like I could have continued forever. That was a positive signal and boosted my confidence levels. Next set was at 75kg. Bar was tolerable, definitely not too heavy, was able to move it t'n'g style also this time. On the 4th rep I lost balance on the bar a little, it kinda fell back a little so I had to save it and finish the last rep.
At the 80kg bar it felt a little wobbly on some reps. It tends to get a little more shaky at heavier weights and feels like mobility holds me back a little, especially on push jerk. When I split jerk this kind of weights, I feel steady and stable in overhead position. But having my feet rather close together and hands overhead there's something in upper back that restricts the perfect motion.
Recap
Afterwards I took couple of sets pause push jerk at 60kg just to work on the "getting under barbell" part faster. This was success. Plus lots of snatch related technique work with empty barbell.
Earlier this week I felt like it would be time for a day off. However, today I felt actually great in my body, and my legs had also recovered well. It's like my legs have been put to a real test. They are taking a hit on a daily basis so it's been tough times for them. Now I feel great and it was a session focusing primarily on shoulder strength.
My intention was to build it up to a heavy triple. There were a lot of eagerness in the beginning so I did some complex stuff. Different styles of getting the bar from rack position to overhead. Mostly from front rack but some behind the neck (btn) too. Gradually I built it up to 90kg for a split jerk triple.
It's freaking awesome to being able to do things again without having to think about them too much. There's no pain in my wrist but I'm not going to try hspu's and push-ups just yet. Their time will come still. Lightest weights went up as shoulder presses too, that was one heck of a complex pushing / jerking the barbell up several times in a row.
At 60kg I dropped shoulder press and behind the neck jerks from my workouts. Decided it's gonna be more efficient this way. It's quite common for me to find it a little shaky on the heavier push jerks. Today my focus was on getting below to really move faster. Don't know how that turned out though =)
Recap
Metcon. Result, 57 reps
3 rounds of:
2 min amrap of push press, 60kg
2min rest
This is great. I've done this similar way before just to work on muscle-endurance. This is stolen from the Champ himself. I'm happy I once saw the workout. This time m shoulders were not in perfect condition towards the end tof 3 of all lifts started to feel heavy. There was not doubt at any given moment of the workout whether I would complete the reps or not.
My result was probably something like 23 - 18 - 16. So from the first round it dropped each round but I was more interested in burning my shoulders, having good intensity and enjoying my time.
Those heavy deadlifts really feel in my body right now. I feel like I was hit my a car, body is totally hammered. I realized it only at the gym, didn't see that coming earlier in the morning. I went to work later in the afternoon so we had time to hit the gym in the morning with Pauliina. I went there with blank thoughts and it soon turned out I'd better listen to my body and take it easy this time. Took some press work and then a workout for quality, not for time.
Barbell.
3 shoulder press + 3 push press
Sets @ 40, 50, 55, 55kg
Even though my posterior chain is screaming for help I wanted to touch the barbell, only for a light work though. I did it in complex style of shoulder presses and push presses. Definitely didn't feel like putting a lot of load overhead today. But this was a good one, the weights stayed light and it seemed to suit well for me today. Had no problems with the sets in any of them.
Workout.
4 rounds of:
500m row
15 pull-ups
10 shoulder press (40kg)
This time I have no idea how much this one took me because that was not the main point of the workout. Just needed to get some work done so I took my pauses and breaks after every station. On the rower my pace was 1.50 or a bit faster. I basically focused on doing the work with my legs instead of hands. The goal was to put lower body in action here and save upper body for pull-ups and shoulder presses.
I got the pull-ups unbroken for all 4 rounds. That was not a surprise as such but for some reason my body felt way more tired than normally so that caused the pull-ups to be more challenging than regularly. Presses were light in weight but they were to be completed without using legs at all, as shoulder presses. Usually I don't put shoulder presses into metcons ever but the nature of this one was different as I took my time to recover between movements. So I got these unbroken each round too.
This is part 5 of the series: "Lucas Parker's Road to the Games". I suggest you to take a look at the entire series. Just put the topic on youtube and you will be guided to all sets
Monday. Mainsite workout from yesterday. Max reps of shoulder presses in a descending weight ladder and pull-up variations.
Better leave this lower body chill out for a while, my right calf went to cramp during yesterday's workout in the last two rounds and has not recovered since so it's been a limbing day =) Anyway, that's not an excuse to skip the gym so I went there and reckoned the main site's workout from yesterday would turn out perfect for me. And it certainly did. Got to mention that Pauliina continued her burpee project and smashed couple of tens them again. I'm extremely proud of her!
Workout. Total of 54 shoulder presses and 57 different pull-ups
Max reps shoulder press, 60kg (result 6 reps)
Max reps L-pull-up (result 10 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 50kg (result 10 reps)
Max reps strict pull-up (result 12 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 40kg (result 16 reps)
Max reps chest-to-bar pull-up (result 15 reps)
Max reps shoulder press, 30kg (result 22 reps)
Max reps pull-up (result 20 reps)
The weights were described as in pounds, I wasn't so precise them. They should have been 135, 115, 95 and 65lbs. I rounded them up to the nearest ten kilos. Started at 60kg and dropped 10kg after each set. On the pull-ups the style changed every round, starting from L-pull-ups coming down to regular pull-ups.
This looked easier on paper than the feeling in my body was during and after the workout. It was not a timed workout. The main point was to put max effort to the table and see how many reps you can nail in every press / pull-up set. My shoulders and arms in general were burning like crazy, already in the 50kg presses. My entire body was shaking, legs included, when I pressed the bar up for max reps. It was a sick feeling to have it as whole-body feeling even though this was targeted to upper body mostly. I guess I gave it my all in this condition as my body was shivering all the way.
L-pull-ups are something I rarely do. To be honest I've done them just couple of times in my life so I didn't know what to expect from them. In my opinion they went pretty well. Got two-digit numbers and that satisfied my hunger. On strict pull-ups I was looking to get somewhere around 15 reps but my strength started bailing me after couple of reps and I couldn't find a good rhythm. Those presses prior to this one definitely had its' effect. Then on the other hand C2B's went very well. Having done them clearly shows in this number (15 reps). At this point my upper body was numb and I still got 15 reps done so I'm happy. Last set of regular pull-ups was not cool either because shoulders and arms had taken so much hit.
It was a very good strength type of workout. As this one was not a timed workout, I took my rest times between attempts and heart rate was high only occasionally but for a very short period of time. These mainsite workouts seem to always kick ass!
Friday. Overhead party by strongmanwod.com, max 90kg. Metcon, 5rds of: 5 power clean (60kg), 10 push-ups, 10 t2b. About 6min
My shoulders and lats are sore from that high-rep pull-up workout. I think my shoulders have taken hit the last couple days. Still, it was time to do some overhead presses, inspired by Rob Orlando's site strongmanwod.com. This turned out to be very tough towards the end. I was pretty much done after this one but decided to get my breathing go heavier through a short metcon.
My second home
Overhead party.
Start a clock, complete 2 reps every minute
Start at 40kg, add 2.5kg every minute
Start with 2 shoulder press
When you cannot complete shoulder press, move on to 2 push press
When you cannot complete push press, move on to 2 split jerk
Very deceptive. Looked easier than it turned out to be. The first rounds were so easy that I didn't know how it would end up. Something like 40-50kg shoulder presses are warm-up weights. I had great desire to do more reps per minute and I actually did in the beginning to get my shoulders activated properly. I also kept the bar overhead for couple of seconds after the reps. Another thing I practiced was dropping the weight on my back, up to 55-60kg. Then I dropped it to front rack every time. Dropping the bar on my back is very useful. That would be awesome if I had the courage to drop it so I could practice multiple consecutive jerks behind the neck.
I was able to complete shoulder press all the way up to 2x67.5kg on the minute. My 1RM is 75kg so I consider this double a good performance considering there was only a short recovery period every minute. I loaded the bar with 70kg and started push pressing the barbell overhead. Those shoulder presses burned my shoulders so that it turned heavy early on with the push presses. Last set of push press was @ 80kg.
There was still something left in my shoulders so I kept adding 2.5kg on the bar. Last set was at 90kg, and I'm telling you it wasn't easy =) I knew it would be my final set so I loaded myself up well and tried to get that double up no matter what. And I got it, that was great.
Metcon. Result about 6min
5 rounds of:
5 power cleans, 60kg
10 push-ups
10 toes-to-bar
It took me couple of minutes to get the shoulder burn settle down. It's been a while since 60kg power clean has felt this heavy. It should be like air but it sure wasn't. This was a short metcon, and the pull-up bar is located 10m away from where I did my cleans and push-ups. I walked between the stations so that definitely took some time.
My round times were almost equal to each other. I had no problems in completing the movements unbroken. This was an easy-pace workout but still got my heart beating faster. Quite nice.
What a training day! My shoulders are so messed up from busting my ass off at the gym. Got to give my pal Joni some credit from bringing the metcon in to my knowledge he had seen somewhere. I don't know if I like that he tipped it to me or not. It was a rough one! Plus there were some serious presses and jerks done prior to the metcon so it had its own flavor in the mix too. Took me some time to recover for sure.
Overhead complex. Presses / jerks.
5 working sets of:
1 shoulder press + 3 push press + 5 push jerks
Barbell at 60kg in each set
This was something new and definitely worked to increase strength and muscle endurance. The weight was good for 5 sets. I wanted the weight to be across, i.e. same weight in all working sets. Took warm-up sets with 40 and 50kg. Shoulder press was the limiting factor for which it would have been difficult trying to add kilos on the barbell. I can shoulder press 75kg for a single but doing 65-70kg after couple of sets would have been very challenging. Plus there was a total of 9 reps per set so 60kg turned out to be great this time.
It was also cool to mix these three different style of shoulder-to-overhead movements into each other and practice on the various lifts together. About a year ago we used to have lots of press days with Toni where we worked on our shoulder strength, starting at shoulder press and once the bar went heavier we transitioned it to push press. Those were great workouts too.
The last set was quite tough and it took some minutes to recover and get ready for the upcoming metcon. Could not have moved directly to it because the work load for shoulders was burdening. Got to try this one another time as well.
Recap of overhead complex
Twisted Cindy. Result 341 reps.
20min amrap of:
1 clean & jerk (60kg) + 1 round of Cindy (5pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats)
2 clean & jerks + 1 round of Cindy
3 clean & jerks + 1 round of Cindy…
Gee, thanks Joni =) He just mentioned it by accident one day and it stayed in my mind to haunt. Kind of a Cindy but you'll have to complete 1 clean & jerk on the first round, then 2 reps on the second, always increasing 1 more c&j after every round of pull-ups, push-ups and squats. Cindy is one classical benchmark workout to test one's fitness. Tough test indeed.
Those clean & jerks were absolutely the hardest part of this one. I got to 9 full rounds of the workout and on the last round I completed 10 c&j's, 5 pull-ups and 1 push-up. Damned they were tough. For a long time after the workout I felt like my shoulders were on fire. I went unbroken with bodyweight movements from the beginning to the end but had to cut the c&j's after 6 rounds.
I realized the nature of this workout already after 3-4 rounds. It was a lots of work. And once it was a long workout I decided before the workout not to rush and gas myself out. Because the first rounds might be easy and you could rattle them through quickly but it would definitely get back at you after a short while. So I took my time with the transition before grabbing the bar for clean & jerks.
For first 6 rounds I got the c&j's unbroken, the 7th round was 5+2, 8th round was 5+3 and the 9th was 6+3. On the last round I got 4+3+3 reps. It was bad when I had to let go of the bar. It's not easy to go for another rep right away. That's why I tried to do it unbroken for as long as possible.
Good workout indeed and perfect training session. This took my breath away and was definitely one of the toughest in a while!
Monday. 1 rep max: back squat (140kg) and shoulder press (PR 75kg).
Today is my birthday and for that reason I'm going to test some 1 rep max single attempts on certain strength movements this week. Last Saturday I did it on deadlifts (got PR of 200kg), today it was time for back squat and shoulder press. No metcons for today.
Strength. Singles
Back squat (100, 110, 120, 130, 140, failed on 145kg)
My legs have become tremendously stronger lately. I used to do various kinds of strength workouts, some sort of ladders, emoms and eccentric squats. Only once did I do sets of 3's and 5's. And the loads those times were great for me. On the 3's I got 135kg and on the 5's 130kg. So I had some huge expectations entering this day. It turned out to be a little short of my goal on the back squats as I didn't get 145kg up. However, there's also a positive side. Doing a squat of 140kg felt good and as you see on the video, it wasn't that tough. I've done tougher lifts.
For some reason it got mental at that point I guess because the 5kg leap is small but it felt heavier. I should have got that PR lift up, no doubt about it. My legs have become so much stronger lately and I know I'm capable of doing heavier lifts. That 140kg lift is a good signal of my possibilities. I'm gonna keep on squatting more towards the end of this year and my goal of squatting 150kg is still valid. I'm gonna make that lift some day!
Recap of the training day
Okay, having a birthday and missing a big lift got me a bit down. However, there was another strength element left in my schedule: shoulder press. When was the last time I did presses as strength training, no idea, it's been ages. Had no idea how this one would turn out but at least my shoulders have done a lot of work in the past half a year.
I did 40 & 50kg sets for warm-up, then completed a couple singles. My previous PR was 70kg, done back in April. It was a lot of work, that I do remember =) Now it was time to update these figures and walk away with a PR in my pocket! Got that old record up rather easily. Wasn't light but it felt like something more is waiting for me. Upgraded it to 72.5kg, played it safe and wanted to take at least something heavier up than 70kg. Got it and decided to add stakes. 75kg was next stop. I tried it once, got half a rep, racked it, took a moment to think about it. Decided to put all in, went after the barbell, took a deep breath and pushed it with everything I had in my tank. Finally it went overhead and a new record saw the daylight, 75kg shoulder press! That's huge for me. Unfortunately my camera wasn't rolling anymore on the last rep so the last one you'll see on the vid is 72.5kg.
Shoulder press, 72.5kg
When I look at this day in a bigger picture, it was great. Adding 5kg on the shoulder press 1-rep max load and completing a beautiful 140kg back squat, these numbers are good for me. As I wrote earlier, I'm gonna add more weight on the squat, no doubt about it. Today's 140kg was the best I've done. This was the third time I got it up. This was clearly the best and purest one. I'll have to be happy about my birthday training day =D
