Sunday 28-31.8: Olympic lifts, Conditioning, Bodyweight

Sunday 28.6 - Wednesday 31.8: Olympic lifts, Conditioning, Bodyweight.

Last weekend we needed to prepare our home for the upcoming move. We finally moved this week's Tuesday. So there's been quite a lot of other stuff called life. Luckily those days have counted when I've had the chance to hit the gym. Unfortunately my gym card for Optimal Performance Center is over now, ended this Wednesday. I've bought some iron from Rogue and waiting to receive those this week.

Sunday.

• Every minute x 15 minutes: Clean & jerk
• 5min: 5 reps @ 60kg
• 5min: 3 reps @ 70kg
• 5min: 1 rep @ 80kg
• All sets touch'n'go

No pause at any point, just cycle the barbell. These felt great. There's something cool to move the barbell up and down without breaks.

C&J's emom

• Wod. Time 5.33
• 3 rounds of:
• 10 power clean @ 80kg
• 10 high box jumps

This combo was tough, no doubt. Both elements took my breath away. Power cleans were not light. Especially for so many reps. I did those in quick singles. I'm very happy how well I got this metcon done even though it felt awful quite soon.

Monday.

• Oly, jerk from rack 5x3 @ 80kg

Also touch'n'go style, push jerks. I did these every 2:00 but the recovery was enough. Not light for sure, not the heaviest possible but I needed to concentrate well to get these done. A little shaky on some reps in my opinion but still something I was able to manhandle.

Clean / Box metcon

• Wod. Result, 232 reps (7 rounds + 8 pull-ups)
• 12min amrap of:
• 12 pull-ups
• 20 wall ball shots

Huh, this hurt. Unbroken on the pull-ups for maybe 4-5 rounds. I tried to keep the transitions rather short so that's why I needed to break them in the last rounds. Wall balls were ub for probably 2 rounds, then it was 12-8 for the rest of the way.

Wednesday.

• Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes: 1 snatch @ 60kg

It's been a while since doing snatches so it was 'bout time. Decided to do one rep every minute. That seems to be enough recovery to smash another within the time cap. There are things to be worked on so I didn't go heavier.

Snatch emom

• Gymnastics, 30 bar muscle-ups

This was not a timed workout. Just completed them for quality. It was 6-5-4-4-3-3-3-2. My lats are sore from that 12min amrap of pull-ups and wall balls. Great to be able to do these as well without issues still, even though my volume has been lighter lately.

• Every minute on the minute x 20 minutes:
• Odd min, 15 ghd sit-ups
• Even min, 10 dumbbell snatches @ 25kg, alternating

This was the last day in OPC and I didn't have to hurry as the rest of the family was on the move. I decided to do another workout of core and snatches. It took 25-30 seconds to finish every set on both movements so there was consistency on the board.

Friday 29.7: Snatch, Squat, Rope, Sled, Clean, Hspu

Friday. Snatch / Ohs e2mom complex @ 60kg for 16min. Front squat 6x2 @ 110kg. Intervals, every 3:00, for 15min: 1 rope + 4x10m light sled push. Hang power clean triples, build up (up to 95kg). Accessory, 50 hspu.

This time I took my time at the gym. It turned out to be an effective session and I moved around between different portions. Started with snatch complex, then front squats for strength, intervals, more olympic lifts, and gymnastics work.

Oly.

• Snatch + Overhead squat complex @ 60kg
• Every 2:00 minutes, perform
• 1+3
• 1+3
• 2+2
• 2+2
• 3+1
• 3+1
• 4+0
• 4+0

This one was stolen from one athlete who's been working at Toni's Box the past week. It sounded like a great complex for improving snatch. Started with one snatch and more overhead squats, then changed so that the number of snatches increased and ohs decreased. The barbell remained at 60kg at all times.

There were some reps I wasn't satisfied with. It's not a good rep in my books if you have to catch it by stepping forward. You should be able to catch it where you land. My warm-up was also short and hips weren't feeling mobile so I stayed above parallel. Other than that the barbell felt good all the way and there were no misses at all. It's cool to see good things are happening at 60kg.

Strength.

• Every 2:00, front squats 6x2 @ 110kg

Feels like an eternity since squatting. Last time it was back squats, this time front squats. Felt stiff and slow from the very first set. However, on the video it looks pretty good. Okay, it's still not the most explosive out of the hole but elbows seem to point straight ahead and form stays good.

Intervals.

• Every 3:00, for 15 minutes
• 1 rope climb + 4x10m sled with light sled (40kg + sled)

Sprints, one rope up and down, then a sled that only had 4x10kg bumpers on. Went down and back for 4 legs of the matt. Felt miserable on the legs. I got 5 of these sets completed, one round every 3 minutes.

Oly.

• Hang power cleans, build up to a heavy triple (40, 60, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95kg)

We were pretty much ready and everything had been performed what we had thought of. I threw in the idea of Toni joining me to pull some barbell from hang position. We basically didn't have any plans. I took a triple, and he followed. Round by round we added a bit weight until we reached something that could be described as a personal record for both of us. Toni was doing these as hang squat cleans.

I don't remember taking 3 reps of hang power cleans ever @ 95kg. It was remarkable for me! Gainz. Toni also reckoned that weight to be his record for a triple @ 95kg. Great work mister!

Gymnastics.

• 50 handstand push-ups

In the end I did quick gymnastics piece to burn shoulders and improve skills. Goal was to do sets of 10 reps with short rest periods. Those recovery times were on point. I got to 40 with 10-rep sets, then 2x5 to finish it. I was satisfied to these at this point of the session.

Toni did benchmark workout Cindy of which you can see the last reps here

Sunday 17.7: Snatch, Pull-ups, Box

Sunday. Snatches (up to 70kg). Metcon, 12min amrap of: 6 power snatch @ 50kg, 8 pull-ups, 10 box. Result, 171 reps.

It was another day as a kid in a candy shop as Toni invited me to train with him at Crossfit Kehä. It's the best crossfit Box I have visited this far. Okay, Crossfit Trykkeri was freaking cool in Copenhagen, Denmark. That's where Annie Thorisdottir seems to throw down every now and then too. Anyway, the point was we hit a great bro-sesh with Toni.

Oly.

• Snatch triples @  40, 45, 50, 55, 60kg
• Snatch singles @ 65, f70, f70, 70, 70kg
• Emom x 10min: 1 snatch @ 60kg
• Couple of snatch balance singles @ 70kg during the process

We had agreed that I'd go for snatch and Toni for overhead squats but that was as far as the plan had went down. I asked him to write me a story to follow. He told me to for for touch'n'go triples and build heavy. Then some singles an see how it feels like.

Don't know why but the snatches felt super good all the way. Hips and shoulders were not tight and there were no restrictions at all. I got all the way up to 60kg for a triple which is definitely the heaviest I have done for a tng set. It gave me a ton of confidence.

From there one I went for singles, 65kg went up nicely. Next stop at 70kg. Didn't have enough courage though, it turned out to be a pathetic snatch pull. Wasn't quite sure what to do as usually it's difficult for me to get a successful lift after a failed one. That's definitely a mental thing. On the other hand we were at Crossfit Kehä and it was not the time to be a wuzzy.

Took another attempt, was able to go under but the barbell stayed in front. It was an important lift as I understood I have what it takes to get it up. Toni said why don't you take that weight as a snatch balance and dominate the weight. That way you would be stronger than the barbell.

I did exactly that, took snatch balance singles for 3 lifts just to make sure who is dominating the bar. Then went back to a regular snatch and took it up either 2 or 3 times, don't remember but the last one was very good. On the first one I had to step front which is not cool. But I ended it with style. Somehow I remember there were 3 successful lifts at this weight.

Toni was doing his overhead squats so I continued taking singles at 60kg. One lift every minute for 10 minutes. Those were the best 60kg snatches I have done in my life at this weight. No doubt, felt super! Could have continued all day. Toni hasn't gone over 80kg on ohs, and today took a triple @ 90kg. Previous personal record was 97.5kg so little by little he realized there was a chance to smash that one. And he certainly did, first 100kg, easy one, and finally 105kg. That was freaking awesome, congratulations buddy! He also jerked 110kg behind the jerk in the end, shared pr lift.

60kg

Metcon. Result, 171 reps (7 rounds + 3 snatch)

• 12min amrap of:
• 6 power snatches @ 50kg
• 8 pull-ups
• 10 box jumps

This was created little by little, last pieces written today. It turned out to be quite a piece to handle. We pondered between a 5-rounder and 12-minutes. This required more work, the shorter would have been even more intense. Different natures. This one at least sucked in a great way. Heavy breathing from the first round on.

Had I not done snatches prior to this one, maybe the weight could have felt heavier. Now it felt much lighter. There was a long break between my last snatch and the start of this metcon but body was still ready to hit it.

We agreed on the strategy to do snatches in singles to save forearms. I guess we both could have done bigger sets but then forearms would have destroyed earlier and probably there would have been more elbows leaning to knees. That's because those snatches really sky rocketed breathing. I felt like my technique was on point on these snatches.

There was no other choice on the pull-ups and boxes but to go unbroken. No strategy needed. I believe my pacing on this workout worked nicely and I got the best out of me. It felt bad quite early on but I pushed through still. And Toni was breathing down my neck. On the first round you can see from the video he had that classic boy-like eagerness and was almost running between stations =)

10 minutes of the workout

Saturday 4.6: Amanda, Clean triples

Saturday. Benchmark workout Amanda. Time, 15.20. Squat clean triples, build up to a heavy set (100kg).

This day was remarkable in my crossfit career. First time being able to do benchmark workout Amanda rx'd. Wasn't pretty to be honest but was able to do it anyway with real weights. Afterwards I went to build to to a heavy set of squat clean triple.

Amanda. Time, 15.20. Compare to 1.5.2015

• 9-7-5 of:
• Ring muscle-ups
• Snatch @ 60kg

I've done this once before with 40kg barbell. It's a totally different game to add 20 kilos on the barbell. Ring muscle-ups went pretty nicely today. For no reason it's been some time since hopping on the rings. It was cool to see I still got it. Had to break them obviously in several sets during the workout.

In the warm-up I took one rep at 60kg snatch, then started the clock on Amanda. The feeling after having 9 muscle-ups fatigue shoulders a bit and then trying to stabilize the barbell overhead in the bottom position was unreal. Hard to even describe how it felt but it simply felt unnatural. I lost the first one in front, and the second attempt went too far back. By the way, that was the first snatch that went through in my life. They always stay in front if I miss them.

Third attempt was caught but it looked ugly as hell. Same with the fourth. Then little by little I started to get it under control. Last reps on the round of 9's were decent. Rounds of 7's and 5's were already smoother. It felt better and better in the course of the workout. It was almost a pity the workout ended. I liked the snatch part towards the end.

I'm very happy I was able to complete this workout. It's been in the back of my head that some day I want to complete it rx'd. These are written to be squat snatches and some of them definitely were not but I'll take it anyway. 60kg snatch is not self-evident for me, especially in a metcon. Sometimes in a snatch session it feels heavy so doing 21 reps of those in metcon is great.

Oly.

• Build up to a heavy set of squat clean triple
• Sets at 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 100kg

It was different to do these sets after metcon. Usually I do strength and barbell cycling before and then hit a workout afterwards. It was a good change in methodology. These weren't the lightest of cleans I've done but still they rolled quite okay.

Doing them touch'n'go style is more taxing than 3 x quick singles so I'm happy with this. On the last rep of the 100kg set I lost the tightness in my body so had to reset the bar and take the last rep as a single.

Tuesday 24.5: Snatch, Wod, Accessory, Row

Tuesday. Emom x 15min: snatch (up to 65kg). Wod, 12min amrap: 5 deads (100kg), 10 s2o (2x20kg db's), 15 box. Result, 222 reps. Accessory, 5rds of: reverse hypers and curls. Cool down, 3k row.

Pauliina had girls gathering at our house so I needed to get out of the house for the evening. I had no troubles figuring out where to go. It was a crossfit session to come for sure. For some reason I had no plans whatsoever for this session at all, just went on by feeling. Turned out to be snatches, amrap, accessory and cool down.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 18 minutes
• Snatch
• 1-3min: 50kg
• 4-6min: 55kg
• 7-9min: 58kg
• 10-12min: 60kg
• 13-15min: 63kg
• 16-18min: 65kg

I took the warm-up easily, didn't rush at all, just kept pounding 40kg barbell up and down for a while. Then turned on the clock and completed one rep per minute. It was great to be able to climb up to 65kg again. Had no desire to build up to max of the day. Just needed to work on my technique. And there is something to be worked on for sure. But the lifts are getting better anyway. The bar is not going all over the place anymore. The lifts are starting to look more similar compared to each other.

Metcon. Result, 222 reps. 7 rounds + 7 db jerks

• 12min amrap of:
• 5 deadlift @ 100kg
• 10 shoulder-to-overhead @ 2x20kg dumbbells
• 15 box jump

Good metcon! Deadlifts have been away from my thoughts lately but it suited very well for this metcon. It could have been heavier but my palms were a bit sore so it didn't feel that good to hold a barbell. Deads were the easiest part of this workout.

Workout's idea was to keep moving constantly. The longest break was between deadlifts and dumbbells as I needed to complete those s2o's unbroken. No point in dropping the db's as it would be a waste of time picking them up from the floor again. Box jumps put breathing high as they regularly seem to do.

Accessory.

• 5 rounds of:
• 12 reverse hypers
• 8 bicep curls

Reverse hypers have been in the back of my head for a long time. Occasionally I get to do them and enjoy every time. Okay, I could do them more often but it's more of a time issue. Accessory portions are for days when there's no rush at all. This was good accessory piece. After all the work I rowed for 3k for cool down purpose.

Monday 16.5: Snatches and Cleans

Monday. Emom x 15min: Snatch (up to PR 72kg). Emom x 15min: 2 cleans (up to 100kg).

Did you watch the Crossfit Regionals during the weekend. It was great to get some competition action streamed at games.crossfit.com throughout the weekend from Friday to Sunday. Pacific, South and California regions threw down first. The events were as tough as they looked like beforehand. It was cool to see those guys attack them. It was a nice surprise that Josh Bridges smashed also the big weights in every event even though he's not a monster in size. Dan Bailey being left out from the Games was a bummer though. So many super athletes were competing for those 5 tickets to Carson that everybody can't go.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 16 minutes:
• 1 snatches (50, 50, 50, 55, 55, 55, 60, 60, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, PR 71, PR 72kg)
• Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes:
• 2 cleans (80, 80, 80, 85, 85, 85, 90, 90, 90, 95, 95, 95, 100, 100, 100kg)

My muscles felt good after the HC Triplet but somehow my body felt worn down in general. Probably due to the three workouts completed on Saturday. Decided to go by feeling on this one. No pressure, just take some lifts on the snatch if I could get my hip mobility on point. I took my time with the warm-up and started taking singles at light weights. It felt like I would definitely stay light all day.

However, it was emom and I decided to go up after every 3 minutes, starting at 50kg, then 55kg and finally 60kg. Those felt nice so I just added 2kg after each set every minute after the initial plan. That 64kg was something that startled me. It felt super good and I surprised myself by really dropping under the barbell. Yes, it might sound funny looking at my snatches =) But that was the feeling I had on that specific lift, and it boosted my confidence to ridiculous levels. So I just kept adding little plates on the bar until I got to 70kg.

Only once in my life have I got 70kg up, and that must have been something like 2 years ago. It's a threshold that has frightened me for too long. That should be a given on any training day in my opinion. My snatch is currently pathetic. Got that 70kg and was pumped over it! Decided to take it safe and add just 1kg on top of that to nail a personal record. That was ugly as hell so I added another kilo to get a better lift completed. Another Personal Record saw the daylight at 72kg boom!

Then it was time to get some cleans under my belt. Took doubles every minute for 15 minutes. Starting at 80kg, and going up 5kg after every 3 minutes. Last weight at 100kg. These were cool too.

Thursday 12.5: Snatch complex, Long wod

Thursday. Emom x 10: Snatch complex (up to 55kg). Metcon, 8rds of: 12 s2o @ 50kg, 40m walking lunges, 500m row. Time, 38min.

On Thursday agenda was snatch work in the beginning and then a long metcon for conditioning purposes. That one was easier on the lungs but burned my legs big time.



Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Power snatch + Hang snatch + Snatch balance
• 1-5min: 50kg
• 6-10min: 55kg

Metcon. Time, 38 minutes

• 8 rounds of:
• 12 shoulder-to-overhead @ 50kg
• 40m walking lunges
• 500m row

After sparring with couple of friends I ended up doing a longer conditioning piece. This was kind of gnarly. Mostly due to the lunges. Those bastards shot my legs. Basically each movement put pressure in the lower body, and it felt after the 38 minutes were done. S2o's were unbroken, so were the lunges. Okay, it's 20 meters one way, and then back down. Rowing was easy pace, at 1:55.

Friday 22.4: Snatch, Squat, Pistols, Row, Intervals

Friday. Emom x 10min: snatch (up to 60kg). Every 90sec: front squat triple (up to 120kg). Metcon, 60 pistols, 60 db snatch (22.5kg), 1.000m row. Time, 11.38. Intervals, every 3:00 x 8 sets: 10m front rack lunges (50kg), 8 bar-facing burpees.

This Friday I spent a good 2+ hours at the gym and didn't have to rush anywhere. It was great after the busy days we've had a lot lately. Olympic lifting, strength and couple of conditioning pieces.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• 2x50kg
• 2x50kg
• 2x50kg
• 2x50kg
• 2x50kg
• 2x55kg
• 1x55kg
• 1x55kg
• 1x60kg
• 1x60kg

Body felt a bit stiff in the hips and shoulders but still these lifts were still okay, after couple of lifts. Had one miss in the 60kg's but corrected that one on the next attempt.

Strength.

• Every 90 seconds, perform front squat triples (60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 105, 110, 115, 120kg)

It's been ages since front squatting. I've been having that barbell on my back in the past weeks more often but today I simply wanted to have the fronts now. These felt heavy, even though I climbed up just to 120 kilos.

Metcon. Time, 11.38

• 60 pistol squats
• 60 dumbbell snatches @ 22.5kg (alternating hands every 5 reps)
• 1.000m row

This was fun! Maybe that is not the right word to describe the feelings but it was one heck of a time to do such a good bunch of reps of one movement without throwing anything else in between. I did the pistols in sets of 10 reps. Towards the end my hammies and quads were shot and felt almost numb.

Db snatches needed to be 5 reps with right hand, then 5 snatches with left hand. You can see the entire wod except the rowing in the video below

Intervals.

• Every 3:00, for 8 sets:
• 10m front rack lunges @ 50kg
• 8 bar-facing burpees

This far there had been a good amount of work so I needed to recover for a while and get my protein shakes inside this body. After some time it felt pretty good to hit it again and the green matt was free so I decided to go for one more piece in the workout session with interval work. Lunges and burpees. Not sure but I'd guess it took something like 45 seconds per set?

Sunday 17.4: Snatch, Heavy Grace + Metcon

Sunday. AM: Complex, hang snatch + snatch, build up to a heavy set (62kg). Heavy Grace @ 70kg. Time, 4.30. PM: Metcon, 4rds of: 10 thruster @ 40kg, 10 ring dip, 10 t2b, 10 burpee. Time, 10.45.

I really needed a rest day on Saturday. Body felt very tired after a busy week. It was action from morning to evening every day and I tried to struggle to get some good sessions in the schedule. Succeeded in that too but it took its taxes during the week. Today I felt great again after a relaxing day spent with the family.

Oly.

• Complex, hang snatch + snatch
• Build up to a heavy set (40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 62kg)

Couple of sets snatches to start the day. This was a rather short session so I took just a few sets and focused on those lifts. I'm happy on all of the lifts this time. Bar path was okay all the way. Everything over 60 kilos starts to get heavy pretty soon but today those were good. I took 62kg and left it there.

Grace. Time, 4.30

• 30 clean @ jerk @ 70kg

This is a benchmark workout that gets me nervous every freaking time! Somehow Grace and Fran are the most classical benchmarks for me. Every now and then this pops up in my program and then it's time to go. I walked around the gym for a while and tried to find excuses to postpone this one but couldn't find any =)

It was a little heavier workout than normally. Rx'd version is at 60kg but this was 70kg. That means it's gonna burn my shoulders and legs much more than normally in a way. On the other hand on the regular version I'm able to go faster which makes it more intense, thus resulting in probably even more pain in the above mentioned areas, plus the lungs.

My strategy was simple. Go singles all the way from the very beginning. Don't keep too much rest between reps, just grab the bar and put it overhead. First reps were quite easy but somewhere between 5-10 the reality hit me and I recognized it's gonna be an awkward ride to the finish line. And it kind of was.

It got heavy but somehow still manageable. My legs started to get fired up and shoulders too. My jerks were quite good though and the technique stayed right on the point. Steady work through the finish. I'll take this one with a pleasure. It's over 2min improvement compared to the previous 70kg Grace.

Grace @ 70kg

Metcon. Time, 10.45

• 4 rounds of:
• 10 thrusters @ 40kg
• 10 ring dips
• 10 toes-to-bar's
• 10 burpees

After couple of hours I returned to the gym as this metcon needed to be completed. I wanted to do this in the morning but didn't have enough time. Plus I was done after 30 clean and jerks. I kept the thrusters light in order to keep the intensity high. That means I was able to go unbroken on them all the way. It sky rocketed my breathing every time and on the last round my shoulders needed to work big time as they started to go numb.

There were three elements that pressured shoulders. Basically everything but the t2b's. Ring dips were the most challenging part. Those have always been challenging for me. First round was unbroken, then I had to start breaking them up. I guess my shoulders are tight and that has an effect on the dips. T2b's were unbroken. Usually burpees keep the breathing up (this was no exception either) but today they mostly shot my shoulders. It felt heavy to push myself up from the floor because of all the shoulder pressure in this workout. Good metcon.

Sunday 3.4: Snatch, Mainsite

Sunday. Snatch emom x 10min: snatch + ohs (up to 60kg). Metcon, 20min amrap of: 400m row, 20 ghd, 10 ohs @ 42.5kg. Result, 5rds + 379m.

Oh my, these legs have felt sore big time since Thursday. Yesterday's heavy squats probably didn't help either. Today's agenda was snatches in the beginning and then a longer amrap in the end.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Snatch + overhead squat (50, 50, 55, 55, 55, 60, 60, 60, 60, 60kg)

It was a blessing to get my hands on a barbell and hit some snatches. It was a blast. I honestly feel like my snatches have taken a huge leap forward (not literally) on the technique. Once in a while I look at the videos from history just to compare how things have changed on my crossfit path during time.

Began at 50kg and went on by feeling. The snatches were okay. Only the first 60kg lift was horribly off but other than that they were alright. They were caught a little too front which is a classic in my case. I have never failed a snatch too much behind so that probably gives a hint that I'm not pulling back enough.

Snatches and first round of overhead squats

Metcon. Result, 5 rounds + 379m row

• 20min amrap of:
• 400m row
• 20 ghd sit-ups
• 10 overhead squats @ 42.5kg

This was on mainsite (www.crossfit.com) yesterday and it caught my attention. Decided to hit it today, just subbed running for rowing due to circumstances. Rowing was easy pace, something around 1:50+. My reasoning was that saving couple of seconds there would not make a big difference. Instead, cutting the transition times would make.

Through the rounds of 2-4 I had to change the order of ghd's and ohs's because someone was hassling over with the ghd machine for some back extensions. Well, I didn't mind which movement came first, and didn't reckon a difference in the difficulty level either way. These were unbroken each round.

Wednesday 16.3: Snatches, Cleans, Dips, Pull-ups, Burpees

Wednesday. Emom x 15min: Snatches (up to 60kg). Metcon, 4rds of: 3 squat clean @ 90kg, 12 ring dips, 15 pull-ups. Right into 20 burpees cashout. Time, 11.54

Back at OPC for a regular training session. Got to say my legs were smashed when I woke up from yesterday's squats. Huh, it kinda feels good to have pain in the entire lower body. Today I focused on snatches and then a different stimulus on the metcon.

Oly.

• 1-5min. Every 30 seconds: 1 snatch @ 50kg
• 5-10min. Every minute on the minute: 1 snatch @ 55kg
• 10-15min. Every minute on the minute: 1 snatch @ 60kg

I went on totally by feeling. Started at 50kg. The weight is not heavy but I still wanted to focus on singles and "perfecting" my technique. That's why it was one rep every 30 seconds. After 10 reps it changed to 55kg singles, and at the same time the time frame turned to 60 seconds. Third part was the last 5 reps that I took with 60kg.

I'm happy on these lifts. They were pretty similar. I was able to bring the bar rather high on the hips, extend the hips and shrug the shoulders. What I'm still lacking is the catch position. It tends to stay forward instead of the barbell locating right above the heels when looked the vertical line from the side. Considering the last lifts were at 60kg there's no other option but to be happy as those looked pretty much the same as all the previous ones.

Metcon. Time, 11.54

• 4 rounds of:
• 3 squat clean @ 90kg
• 12 ring dips
• 15 pull-ups
• After 4 rounds right into 20 burpees for cashout

This was a variety as the barbell was kind of heavy. Definitely heavy for a metcon. And it also felt like it. Completed these in three quick singles. At some point I started to feel the burden in my legs on the cleans. Quads were usually on fire on the last rep.

Ring dips have been ignored without any good reason. They are a weakness anyway so this was definitely a good choice. Got the first round unbroken, then there was no chance anymore. I cut them to pieces, they changed from round to round. Second was 7-3-2, third was 5 reps in the beginning and then triples and doubles. Last round was 4 reps to begin and then doubles and singles to finish it. Once the ring dips are gone, it's not easy to recover.

Pull-ups. First round unbroken. Then two rounds were 10-5 reps, and the last one was probably 9-3-3 reps. This is my best recall of those sets. The point was that right after the fourth round was completed I needed to drop down for 20 burpees as cashout. Must admit those were some of the heaviest burpees I have ever completed. Yes, at this point my lungs were breathing quite heavy but I mean they burned my shoulders a lot. It almost felt like I was doing some barbell movement, and it was challenging to push myself up from the floor. Kept telling myself there's only couple of reps left.

Friday 16.3: CF Open 16.3

Friday. CF Open 16.3. 7min amrap of: 10 power snatch @ 35kg, 3 bar mu's. Result, 71 reps.

It was freaking great to have a chance to workout at Toni's new affiliate. This was the second time I went there. The place is the coolest crossfit box I have ever seen. We were supposed to hit this newest crossfit open workout together they released last night. Looked like a nice workout as each and every one of them have looked like this far. Toni was busy running last minute errands for tomorrow's introduction class at the box.

CF Open 16.3. Result, 71 reps (5 rounds + 6 snatch)

• 7 minute amrap of:
• 10 power snatch @ 35kg
• 3 bar muscle-ups

This looked a bit intimidating as neither of the elements were too difficult / challenging. But the clock is the frightening factor here. It's quite a short one so you shouldn't have excuses for taking breaks. On the other hand, it was a no-brainer that this is going to murder forearms. I said that the minute I saw this workout was released and that was exactly the thing, at least in my case. Jumped on this without warm-up as both elements are light anyway and I only had a limited time to hang around.

Doing sets of 10 reps with light snatches is deceptive as it's easy in the beginning and round by round it gets more painful. I did both elements unbroken as I figured it's time consuming to start picking the barbell up again or being ready to jump up to the pull-up rig again. I believe it was a good choice. Don't know what would have happened if I cut the recovery times in the transitions. That would have most definitely brought issues on being able to go unbroken.

Saturday 5.3: Mu's, Snatch, Cleans

Saturday. Skills, mu's and burpees. Emom x 10: snatch (mostly 50kg). Emom x 12min: power clean (up to 95kg)

Saturday wasn't the most glorious of days as I attended grandpa's funeral. It was couple hours drive away so it was a road trip ahead with my bro. Emotional day for sure. It was a warm-hearted family gathering for sure. Anyway, I needed to get to the gym early in the morning to get my mind on something else.

Saturday's set-up

Skills.

• 10 ring muscle-ups
• 30 burpees

Hands were pretty sore which made gripping basically anything awkward but I wanted to get some muscle-up action done. The big take away was that I got to finally take the mu training on video and analyze it on the technique. I found out that my gut feeling of getting the back swing a lot better is true. It's been poor in the history but now it's much more fierce. I'm very pleased on that! Another key issue is keeping the legs together, another win.

What I'd like to see get done in the future better is that my body would create a more hollow body position and not that many angles. That would create a good tension in the body and elevate the body over the rings more easily. This concerns the swing on both back and front positions. Finished these ring muscle-ups with 30 burpees in a row to get heart rate up.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• Snatch (mostly 50kg)

Light weight. Definitely felt a morning training. Body was stiff all the way and really didn't get loosened up at any moment of the session. I took 40kg and 45kg reps in the beginning, then finished with 50kg singles to the end. First snatches at 50kg fell forward which made me correct the position with footing when coming up. I consider those pretty much a failed lift. Towards the end I got the bar path corrected and those felt alright. Then on the video I realized they were power snatches even though I thought I was sitting below parallel. That morning stiffness shows there =)

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 12 minutes
• Power clean (80, 80, 80, 85, 85, 85, 90, 90, 90, 95, 95, 95kg)

Had some extra time so I loaded the bar up to 80kg and took some singles. First at every 30 seconds, then from 85kg on it was singles every 60 seconds. Was supposed to end at 90kg but I decided to add it to 95kg anyway. Those were not the cutest ones but the rest of these power cleans were about on point.

Thursday 25.2: Burpees, Snatch, Ghd, Press

Thursday. 4min amraps of burpees and snatches with ascending weights. Metcon, 20 to 2, down by 2's ghd's. 10 db press between ghd's.

Another long day at work. This thing called crossfit is a perfect way to zero my thoughts and get back to life. It was a productive day indeed but energy levels start to come down at some point. Then it's time to gear up and go to work, to the gym though. By the way, the Crossfit Open is upon us! They will publish the first event, 16.1 on the upcoming night. It's gonna be spectacular to kickoff the crossfit season. I love to watch and follow the pros doing their job to find the fittest on earth.

Intervals.

• 4min: 30 burpees + amrap of snatches @ 35kg (result, 32 reps)
• 4min rest
• 4min: 20 burpees + amrap of snatches @ 50kg (result, 25 reps)
• 4min rest
• 4min: 10 burpees + amrap of snatches @ 60kg (result, 13 reps)

My camera's battery went dead on the first amrap so I couldn't relive the moments but fact is that on the first round I went unbroken on the burpees. Actually every round. That was the easy part. Then came the snatches. First round was 10-10-5-7 reps to finish it with 32 reps.

Second set was with slightly heavier weights at 50kg. First 20 burpees, then use the rest of the remaining time of 4 minutes to complete as many snatches as possible. It was triples all the way until the last set where I took one extra rep.

Third amrap was at 60 kilos which meant it's gonna be singles from the very first lift. This was a good strategy, and I don't know how many fails there would have been had I tried to do doubles. In the beginning I was a bit too ambitious and tried to do fast singles. This led to one failed rep. Other than that it was okay. Definitely not the best snatches I've had but the barbell came up.

Metcon.

• 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 of ghd sit-ups
• 10 dumbbell presses @ 2x15kg

This was created on the fly. Just started moving and came up with this during the first set of ghd's. That was a good time pressure to think what to do after the 20 reps are done. Walked right onto dumbbell rack and picked up two pieces of 15kg db's, and went for 10 reps. That was easy in the beginning.

During these 10 rounds they got tougher towards the last rounds. Core got also stiff in the metcon and both movements brought pressure there. Went unbroken still, and refused to take any rest between elements. Walked over to the dumbbells, picked them up right away and put them overhead. Same with the ghd's.

Monday 15.2: Snatch, Intervals, Thrusters

Monday. Power snatch 5's (up to 58kg). Intervals, every 5:00: 20 cal row + 10 barbell reps. Cashout, 3x15 thrusters @ 40kg.

Evening session at the gym. Yesterday was a good snatch session so I kept going with that. Today was supposed to be a rest day due to schedules but luckily there was a time slot worth taking advantage of. Couple of intervals with rower and barbell, then finally some accessory work via thrusters.

Oly.

• Power snatch 5's (40, 50, 55, 57, 58, 50kg)

Damn, 5 power snatches at 58kg is definitely the heaviest I have ever done. Yeah, I know that sounds ridiculous as it's most guys' warm-up weight =) For me it's the real deal. These were touch'n'go reps all the way. More than I dared to hope for.

Intervals.

• Every 5:00, for 20:00
• 20 cal row + 10 power snatch @ 40kg
• 20 cal row + 10 clean and jerk @ 40kg
• 20 cal row + 10 thruster @ 40kg
• 20 cal row + 10 squat clean thruster @ 40kg

This was a great combination. The weights were questionable on some parts. As my legs were burning from the rowing I felt like my technique was a bit off on the snatches and clean and jerks. Rowing pace was 1:36 on both of those times I looked on the screen.

So going pretty much full throttle on the rowing made the barbell movements exotic. On the snatches the weight was alright. Then on the c&j's it was a bit too light. On the other hand I felt like the last cleans were bouncing a bit off my thighs and I didn't have enough patience to pull it up to hips anymore. Shoulders felt good on those so the weight could have been maybe 50kg.

On the thrusters the weight felt surprisingly light. Thrusters are never light so this was kinda funny. Same with the last movement, squat clean thrusters. Don't get me wrong, I was wasted after each of these intervals because I rowed as fast I could and walked right to the barbell and didn't take any breaks. These just made me think if I could have had more weight on the bar.

Cashout.

• 3x15 thrusters @ 40kg

Clock was quite late so instead of the intended 5x5 front squats I decided to finish the session with couple of thrusters. 15 reps, then short break between and repeat for a total of 3 sets. Shoulders got fired up good time. Legs were fine all the way.

Sunday 14.2: Open wod 13.1, Row, Pull-ups

Sunday. CF Open 13.1. Result, 121 reps. Wod, 5rds of: 300m row, 12 pull-ups.

Great Sunday! It's Valentine's Day so we hooked up with some friends for Sunday brunch, enjoyed that time and then went to the gym in the evening with my wife. Couldn't be better. Re-test of an old crossfit open workout from 2013. Development has taken place.

CF Open 13.1. Result, 121 reps (21 snatch @ 60kg). Compare to 9.3.2013

• 17min amrap of:
• 40 burpees
• 30 snatch @ 35kg
• 30 burpees
• 30 snatch @ 60kg
• 20 burpees
• 30 snatch @ 75kg
• 10 burpees
• Amrap of snatch @ 95kg in the remaining time

Long story short. This went well. I'm fitter than before if I choose to believe this test. And I will. My snatch max load has not gone up tremendously since previous time doing this one but obviously muscle endurance and technique has.

Should have gassed more on the snatches. I realized that a bit too late though. I took some rest between singles. I have never done more than couple singles at 60kg so this was a new situation for me. It was also a huge win for me mentally. It felt like that bar was going up rather easily. At least considering what I thought about this beforehand. In the end I was able to speed it up. And after the 17 minutes were over I decided to continue to finish 30 snatches to get a piece of the feeling of benchmark workout Isabel.

CF Open 13.1

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 300m row
• 12 pull-ups

Had no time to recover between workouts so I just ripped the plates off the barbell and sat on the rower. Didn't time this at all. Rowing was not full effort, more easily this time. On the pull-ups there was no other option but to go unbroken, keep the legs tied together and focus on utilizing my hips. Good workout.

Snatches

Friday 22.1: Snatch, Squat, Deads, Hspu

Friday. Emom x 10min: 2 hang snatch (50kg). Back squats 5x5 (120kg). Metcon, 3rds of: 7 hspu (110kg), 10 hspu, 30 air squats.

My plan was to get a long session at the gym after a rest day. Got to be honest to myself that this wasn't the best of sessions. My wrist has been sore this week without any good reason and it's been bugging me, today as well.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 minutes
• 1 snatch pull + 2 hang snatch

Wrist prevented me to go heavier on these. Maybe timing was a bit off anyway but I'll take this. The weight itself wasn't too bad and I played with it in the end with couple more reps for fun. I just wanted to work on this movement.

Strength.

• Back squat 5x5 @ 120kg

I really like this one. Squats are the best. Today I kept it light though. But squats should be part of almost daily program. If I had enough time I'd go for squats more often. My back felt tight on the snatches and transferred to the squats too.

Old school

Metcon.

• 3 rounds of:
• 7 deadlift @ 110kg
• 10 handstand push-ups
• 30 air squats

The combination of these elements is excellent. Great burn for the posterior chain. My back was too tight for getting the best of this for real. Squats started to make the back feel very uncomfortable. As I said in the beginning, this session was not the one I'll be telling stories about to my grand children sometime in the future but it was definitely fun to hit it once again.

Friday 15.1: Snatches

Friday. Emom x 15min: snatches (up to 65kg).

Very quick session to end the work week. Took 15 minutes of warm-up to prepare hips, lats and shoulders for the work looming ahead. My mind and body was ready for more work but schedule was tight.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 15 minutes
• 1 snatch per minute
• 3x45, 3x50, 3x55, 3x60, 3x65kg

I played around with empty barbell and 40kg for some time to get a good rhythm and looked for the bar path. Took high pulls, tall snatches and pull-unders like Milko Tokola did in the post I put on the blog yesterday.

65kg. Sorry for the camera angle =)

Today these snatches felt mostly very good. I was anxious to hit more snatches or with shorter frequency but kept my mind anyway. It was probably a good choice so I got a chance to focus on every lift properly. This went on without misses up to the last rep. There I missed that 65kg lift once, then tried to take it up after 10 sec pause but that failed too. Took a short break and got the final lift in the books.

Wednesday 13.1: Amraps and Snatch

Wednesday. With a running clock for 30 minutes. 0-10min: 10min amrap of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 kb swing (24kg), 20 squat. 10-20min: build up to a heavy snatch single. 20-30min: 10min amrap of 5 power clean (70kg), 10 dips, 15 box.

Today was a tight schedule day. There wasn't much time to hang around so I wrote this workout in a bit different way, taking these circumstances into account. I've been trying to squeeze some time off of my sessions lately and succeeded in it pretty nicely too.

Workout.

• 0:00 - 10:00, 10min amrap of:
• 5 pull-ups
• 10 push-ups
• 15 kettlebell swings @ 24kg
• 20 air squats
• Result, 280 reps (5 rounds + 15 kb swings)

• 10:00 - 20:00
• Build up to a heavy single
• Snatch
• Result: 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 63, 65kg

• 20:00 - 30:00, 10min amrap of:
• 5 power cleans @ 70kg
• 10 dips
• 15 box jumps
• Result, 95 reps (5 rounds + 5 cleans)

Practically without any warm-up I started working for this wod. Just opened some hips for 2-3 minutes before tapping the timer on. I would never do that in a workout with heavy weights or if top of the notch mobility was needed (like I even had it =D). However, the idea was that the first piece is mostly bodyweight stuff which is easy to begin with.

It was something that reminded benchmark workout Cindy. Upgraded it with kettlebell swings, 1.5pood bell. 10 minute amrap of these four elements. It took something like 1.30min on the first round, then 1:40 - 1:55 on the following rounds. Unbroken on each movement. Got 20 air squats shy of 6 full rounds.

It was awkward to move to the weightlifting platform right after metcon. Even though I have done crossfit for 3 years, this type of arrangement was not familiar to me. It was nice to see that even though I didn't do warm-up specifically, going for squat snatches after this metcon my hips and shoulders were well prepared, open and ready for action. Didn't feel tight at all, from anywhere in my body.

I didn't pay that much attention to the clock, just climbed up little by little doing singles from the very beginning. First lift felt somehow off but then I got them rolling well. Maybe the first lift felt funny after having my heart rate up still. Had one miss on the heaviest load at 65kg. I shook my hands and took another shot at it, and got it up. This was a good result for me.

As funny as it was to go after snatch singles after metcon, it was as funny to start another metcon right after the last snatch. I just changed my shoes back to Nano's, changed the plates to 70kg and started pulling. Went unbroken on each element in this one too. This was physically more demanding than the first metcon. Cleans made me breath heavy, dips burned my shoulders, chest and triceps. And box jumps are always a good one to burn legs and lungs. This was a good 30min workout!

Wednesday 30.12: Oly technique, long metcon + Bench

Wednesday. AM. Technique, clean / snatch. Metcon, 3rds of: 5 bar mu, 10 clean (60kg), 15 burpee, 20 kb swing (24kg), 25 ghd, 30 du, 400m row. PM. Bench 5x3 @ 90kg.

Went to the gym early in the morning. As I anticipated my legs were smoked. Did some technique work in the beginning and then a longer metcon with modest pacing. In the afternoon only bench presses, short session.

Yeah, messy notes but it reminded me what to do next in the metcon =)

Oly.

• Clean
• Snatch

There were barely weight on the barbell. It was either an empty or 40kg barbell all the way. This was mostly concentrating on pause cleans at different phases of the bar path. I believe there is something to this drill that might make a big difference in the long run. Probably the most significant thing with which I have got gains on the snatch technique has been to cut the movement in pieces and do high pulls too.

Metcon.

• 3 rounds of:
• 5 bar muscle-ups
• 10 power cleans, 60kg
• 15 burpees
• 20 kettlebell swings, 24kg
• 25 ghd sit-ups
• 30 double unders
• 400m row

Long workout. It took something like 8-9 minutes per round to complete. In the first round my body didn't react too well for the muscle-ups. Those felt heavier than normally. On the second and third round I got them rocking much better.

Power cleans were quick singles in every round. Very smooth in my opinion. However, they got me breathing heavily, especially after jumping right on to 15 burpees. That was a nice combination. I paced myself on those, didn't rush at all but kept the body moving all the time.

Swings were unbroken, the weight was only 24kg so that was kind of no-brainer. Ghd's were quite easy. Yesterday I found out that the happiness to good double unders is to foam roll shins before the jump rope action. Today I did the same trick and du's worked well. Had one miss in one of the sets but I'm very happy on the du's!

Rowing was modest pace all the way. Also the transitions were not the fastest. The purpose of this workout was to keep heart rate under control from the very beginning. Good workout.

Strength.

• Bench press 5x3 @ 90kg (first set 5 reps)

After eating twice and sleeping in between I went to the gym again to do bench for strength. After a lengthy warm-up I climbed up to 90kg at which I did 5 sets. The first was 5 reps, the rest were triples. All across @ 90 kilos.