Monday 9.11: Snatch, Squat, 12min amrap

Monday. Snatch singles (up to 66kg). Back squat singles, emom x 10min (130-135kg). Metcon, 12min amrap of: 5 thruster (50kg), 10 pistols, 15 pull-ups. Result, 163 reps.

After a more easy going weekend it was time to go heavier. Snatches to improve olympic lifts, squats to get the legs stronger, and then the real workout of the day arrived in the form of thrusters and bodyweight movements for time.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10min: snatch
• 1-2min: 55kg
• 3-6min: 57kg
• 7-8min: 59kg
• 9-10min: 61kg
• Exra snatches at 64, 66kg. Fails at 68kg

It was a mind blowing discovery to work on snatch high pulls. That has enabled me to keep the barbell closer to body. Today it helped as well. I took couple of pulls in the beginning just to remind how it's done.

Then I put the clock running and took snatch singles. It was easy pace, just singles per minute as the focus was to get good reps in the books. This movement is slowly getting better session by session. Today I was able to lift rather heavy. Yes, these are baby weights for most people but for some reason this movement is difficult for me. My clean PR is 116kg, and squat is around 150kg so everything says I should be snatching something close to 90-100kg but it's not even close. I'll try to improve the technique, and get more comfortable with bigger weights.

It's been ages since I took 66kg up in snatch. That was a spectacular feeling. 68kg was as high as it  should be. For some reason I hesitated to go under the barbell. There was no reason for that.

Metcon's round times

Strength.

• Every minute on the minute x 10min: back squat
• 1-5min: 130kg
• 6-10min: 135kg

Right after snatches it was squat singles. First 5 minutes were at 130kg, and the latter half at 135kg. After all these were more on the comfort zone. Doing them every minute on the minute had its own flavor.

Metcon. Result, 163 reps

• 12min amrap of:
• 5 thrusters, 50kg
• 10 pistol squats
• 15 pull-ups

This was not the most pleasant idea to hit it but I had decided to go after this one no matter what. Thrusters and pull-ups are quite nasty combination. Throw in some pistol squats and it's going to next level. In addition, these were 50kg thrusters which feel like a lot heavier than 40kg thrusters which is the traditional thruster weight.

Thrusters put the breathing heavy but those were surprisingly easy to handle. Well, easy is not the correct word. They felt heavy in the metcon but there was no doubt of hitting them unbroken. Pistols were mostly unbroken. Towards the end they were 6 reps in a row, then a break and 4 more reps completed.

Pull-ups were unbroken in the first 2 rounds. Then I cut them to maybe something like this: 10-5, 9-6, and 8-4-3. Had to take some breaks between the attempts and movements, and my round times grew longer by the round. That was expectable, especially as there were 15 pull-ups every round. I knew it's gonna be ub in the beginning, and some breaking down towards the end. This was one hell of a workout. Very good one!

Sunday 8.11: Run, Wall ball, Vest

Sunday. Metcon, 5 rounds of: 450m run, 25 unbroken wall ball shots, 10 air squat. Wear a 9kg vest.

Sunday witnessed another outdoors metcon. I really enjoy working outdoors. There's some extra endorphin that flows in my body or something but it sure feels great to hit it in the fresh air. Today and yesterday it was raining while I was training but it doesn't matter. At all.

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 450m run
• 25 unbroken wall ball shots
• 10 air squats
• Wear a 9kg vest

I also had the climbing rope with me but due to the rain it didn't sound tempting to climb a wet rope up and down. And kettlebell had been in the play for two days in a row so it was wall ball's turn to move. I ran a different route for 450m per round and then came back to throw the ball.

Got to say the vest makes running a lot more painful than normal running. It smashes against the chest / heart on every bounce which makes breathing a bit more uncomfortable. That's the reason why I ran most of the time by holding the vest still with my hands. That made it easier to run.

Wall ball in the rain. Not that bad though, it wasn't raining that much. Plan was not to drop the ball at any point. 25 reps per round, go unbroken. I'm happy I followed this plan all the way. It was nothing but mental. First rounds were not difficult but towards the end the last reps started to burn shoulders. This was the first time ever doing wall balls with a vest. Traditionally my shoulders start to burn on this movement but legs hold on well. This time hamstrings started to fatigue as well. After wb's I did couple of air squats just to get the legs more tired.

Saturday 7.11: Run, KB snatch

Saturday. Metcon, 5 rounds of: 400m run, 5/5 kb snatch (32kg). Wear a 9kg vest.

Spent the weekend in Klaukkala, in the countryside and as you probably already know the surroundings are perfect for crossfit. This time it was a metcon with running and kettlebell snatches.

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 400m run
• 5 right hand kettlebell snatch, 32kg
• 5 left hand kettlebell snatch, 32kg
• Wear a 9kg weight vest

This was something I call fun. It's been time since playing around with the vest I got from my baby something like 2 years ago. Every now and then I go and get it from the cellar, put it on, and get to work. It gives classic movements a different edge for sure.

Running was for 400 meters, 200m back and forth basically. I brought my 2-pood bell with me. This was pretty much without a warm-up. Took couple of swings and snatches with it and got to work. Breathing was high as both running and kb action have their effect on the game.

Friday 6.11: Clean, Partner wod

Friday. Clean 10x1 @ 100kg. Clean from blocks 6x3 @ 80kg. Pair wod, 2rds of: 40 hspu, 8x20m sled push, 100 kb swing (28kg). Time, 21.20.

Another grind with Jasper. Sets of cleans to start the session. They had acquired blocks to the gym which was a positive surprise! I noticed them yesterday and was tempted to attack them right away. Some singles first, then triples from blocks. Finished the session with another chipper style workout with Jazz.

Oly.

• Clean singles 10x1 @ 100kg
• Clean from blocks 6x3 @ 80kg

Felt kind of stiff on the legs or maybe the burden of the past week felt in my lower body but they were kind of beaten up. Still, I had decided on the 100kg singles so I stuck to that plan. They were pretty smooth all the way. Had one miss somewhere in the middle or maybe in the end but anyway, that was some sort of concentration problem. I cleaned it up effortless right after.

It was cool to throw around this weight. Guess I should be higher on the "percentages" of one rep max to get comfortable going under the barbell. These are not heavy for the front squat part but it's more about the guts of getting under a big load of iron.

I didn't think about the point of the blocks that much this time. I just wanted to try them out and did triples at below knee height at 80 kilos. Felt pretty smooth even though at first this felt very awkward. I would have liked the blocks to be a bit higher so that the starting point would be above knee.

Recap of cleans

Pair wod. Time, 21.20

• 2 round of:
• 40 handstand push-up
• 8x20m sled push, 80kg (+sled)
• 100 kettlebell swing, 28kg

It took us some time to come up with a good partner workout. Hspu's were self evident. Sled came as a good number two but the third element took as a while. Kettlebells were by far the easiest portion of this one. We did them in sets of 10 reps all the time. Practically no rest there as the kb was moving all the time.

On the hspu's Jasper does them strict so it's obviously a lot tougher on him. We agreed not to set a certain amount of reps per dude so it was more of a freestyle. On this one it turned out I did most of the reps because kipping is lighter on the shoulders. Especially the second round got to my shoulders big time.

Sled sounds like it takes the biggest burden on the legs but after hspu's it's highly taxing on the shoulders too. We've done similar stuff once with Jasper and my bro and it was a killer one that time too. Anyway, we both went 4 times head-to-head on the 20 meter grass matt. Breathing stayed under control but shoulders were done after this one.

Thursday 5.11: Bench, Pair wod

Thursday. Bench 4x5 (90kg). Pair wod, 2rds of: 40 jerk (60kg), 50 t2b, 60 burpee. Time, 16.59.

We had a training session ahead of us with Jasper. Agenda was pretty open and free but the thought was about doing deadlift, bench and a conditioning piece. Thursday is usually a classic meathead day strength-wise and today was exactly that.

Strength.

• Bench press 5-5-5-5-5 (80, 90, 90, 90, 90kg)

We actually started with deadlifts. Barbell was light, back and legs felt great but my hands couldn't take the burden. My palms and fingers seem to be the part which determine whether pulls are going to be good or bad in any given day. Today it felt like my fingers will get cut off. Hurt like hell. Already at 130kg it felt painful on the fingers and palms. 150kg was nightmarish.

I took sets at 60, 100, 130, 150, 150, 130kg for different amount of reps but I don't count this as a strength portion at all. It was a disappointment that I wasn't able to pull heavy. Jasper did his part of the real as planned.

Bench was kind of lame after those deads but little by little I got excited about this movement and got good sets in the books at 90kg. Warm-up was 10x60, 5x70kg.

Pair wod.

• 2 rounds of:
• 40 shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg
• 50 toes-to-bar
• 60 burpee

Just before we started our metcon I realized I'm in a bit of a rush so it was time to put the clock on and start working. Plan was to do the jerks by changing after every 5 reps, and we stuck to that on the first round. On the second one I did a bit more of the work as I did these as push jerks, and Jazz went with push presses. T2b's were the easiest part of this for me, and I used it more as recovery.

Beforehand we thought burpees would be a walk in the park as we planned to do them in sets of 6 reps, then change. This was not the case though. Yes, we went in sets of 6 reps all the way but they were surprisingly hard on the second round. And the jerks right after these burpees were not tempting but still doable. I felt good on this workout but it surely brought a lot of tension on shoulders. Nice burned with a training buddy.

Wednesday 4.11: Snatch, Squat, Longer metcon

Wednesday. Oly, 10 sets of: snatch high pull + snatch @ 55kg. Strength, pause back squat 6x3 @ 120kg. Metcon, 4rds of: 10 power clean (80kg), 15 burpee, 20 ghd, 25 box. Time, 20.33.

It's my birthday so I found a good way to celebrate it after work: crossfit! =) That's a lot of quality time for sure. Olympic lifts, lower body strength and a bad ass metcon. That took my breath away, literally. Loved every second of today's session.

Oly.

• 10 sets of: snatch high pull + snatch @ 55kg
• Both from hang position

This was a new way to work on snatches. And I enjoyed it. Definitely have to take this type of snatch training more often. Big problem for me is the bar is traveling too far away from my body. By doing high pulls it's easy to keep the bar close. And by teaching the body to keep it close, it is also easier to keep it closer on the actual snatch too.

Yes, there were some reps where I caught the bar in front and had to walk a step forward to catch the bar overhead. Still, I consider this practice worth keeping in the repertoire.

Snatch recap

Strength.

• Pause back squat 6x3

Got this idea couple of days ago from somewhere. Since then, it's been tickling me from time to time that I'm gonna hit it someday. I had no idea about the weights I'm able to move but I still decided to go for 120kg for triples. They were actually perfect for weights. First rep was easy, second one needed much more work, and the third one was a good grind!

Squat recap

Metcon. Time, 20.33

• 4 rounds of:
• 10 power clean, 80kg
• 15 burpee
• 20 ghd sit-up
• 25 box jumps

This was originally 20min amrap but I decided to finish the last round which brought it half a minute overtime of the time frame. I wanted it to be long and mental. Power cleans were semi heavy. During the workout they naturally turned a lot heavier. These were singles from the very first rep. I understood this is not where time will be saved if I hurried through the first round.

Next movement burpees. Just pace them through. Keep moving. As I've said before, there is no actual need to stop on the burpees. It is an easy movement. You just throw yourself down on the floor, hit chest on the ground, and come up. Pace yourself and keep the rhythm on. Think about the breathing while your doing it to make it easier.

Ghd's, my core seems to be strong. I've realized it during these 3 years of crossfit. Maybe that's because of my earlier career as a goalkeeper in floorball. Stronger core means faster moves on the goal as you need to move quickly sideways. These were also unbroken. I got a good hint from Lauri to engage my hips more when coming up. Currently I'm doing the work mostly with the core.

On the box jumps I decided to walk back from the ghd's and start jumping. This was also the element where I need to control my breath strongly because otherwise I would have gassed even more. This was a very good conditioning piece to crown the training session.

Below are some parts of the metcon in the form of a video. Cleans, burpees and box jumps.

Metcon

Tuesday 3.11: Clean, Squat, Row, Push-ups

Tuesday. Hang clean 8x2 @ 90kg. Front squat doubles, ladder up to 125kg. Metcon, 5rds of: 500m row, 20 push-ups. Cool down, 1k row.

We had a great evening with Toni and our wives. It was quality time in the form of dinner and theater. The show itself was a blast and lots of laughing all the time. This is the reason why I went to train earlier in the afternoon to get a good doze of crossfit done before the evening.

Oly.

• Hang squat clean 8x2 @ 90kg

I'm pulling from the hang position right now because I want to heal my right hamstring properly before pulling heavy from the ground. It would be awesome to do heavy cleans and deadlifts too but I won't take that risk. The healing was in good process but then I pulled some clean all the way from ground, and it brought wrong kind of tension in the hammy, so I decided to play it safe from then on. Hang cleans are no problem whatsoever so it feels great to get some heavier cleans done. Today's agenda was doubles at 90kg, all the way. Quite a good number of sets

Squats. Result, 2x125kg

• Front squat ladder
• Every 90sec, complete front squat triples
• Start at 60, then 70, 80, 90, 100kg. Then, add 5kg per set for as long as possible

Then as legs were properly warmed up already from the first part I kept front squatting. I've done this same combo in the past. That time I got to 130kg for a double, and that in mind I kept pushing through. The game actually starts somewhere at 110kg. Sets before that are more or less warm-up stuff.

One triple every 90 seconds. Recovery starts to become an issue at some point. I felt pretty good on the set of 125kg, and I thought about nailing that last rep too, and then take a bit of a longer rest to get a good fight on the 130 kilos

Barbell recap

Metcon. Time, 13.00

• 5 rounds of:
• 500m row
• 20 push-ups

This was a lot of fun. Goal of this workout was to get a steady work done. My pace was sub 1.50 each round on the rower. It was kind of awkward that rowing started to get more comfortable in the course of the workout. Somehow my body got heated up well during the rounds. Yes, of course it also turned nastier as breathing got heavier. But goal was under 1.50, and I stayed in that zone all the time. Didn't go out of the gates like a madman either in the beginning.

Push-ups were going to be unbroken, in my head. And that also went as planned. Yes, they got tougher but it was a positive surprise how well I got through them. In the end I stayed on the rower for another kilometer with slow pace to flush legs.

Sunday 1.11: Pull-ups, Burpee, Kb

Sunday. Gymnastics, unbroken pull-up sets of: 30-25-20-15-10-5, rest as needed between sets. Wod, 5rnft of: 10 burpee, 7/7 kb jerk (24kg).

On Sunday I went to the gym in the evening. I've felt kind of tired all weekend but I'm very happy I pushed myself to the gym in the evening. We had some errands to be done so only time slot was later in the day.

Gymnastics.

• 30-25-20-15-10-5 of:
• Unbroken sets of pull-ups
• Rest as needed between sets

Lots of pull-ups. My pal Toni did a good bunch of pull-ups couple of days ago so that inspired me to hit big sets too. Well big, that's kind of relative. I saw Nathan Bramblett hit a 5min emom of 30 unbroken pull-ups… That's from another planet. Yes, I can hit 30+ pull-ups (max set is 41 in the history) but it needs some time to recover before the next set.

Below you can see the set of 20 reps. All these sets were doable, even though the last reps felt tough. And that's how it was supposed to be. Had they been too easy, I would have walked away a bit disappointed.

20 pull-ups

Wod.

• 5 rounds of:
• 10 burpee
• 7 right hand kettlebell jerk, 24kg
• 7 left hand kettlebell jerk, 24kg

Later on I threw my chest to the floor, knocked couple of burpees, then saw a kettlebell next to me in the process, and decided to jerk it in the air. It formed to burpee / kb shoulder-to-overhead. Seven jerks per hand, then change from right to left hand, and repeat. I was pretty well gassed after this one.

Monday is a rest day. I was supposed to hit it for cleans, front squats for barbell work. Then rowing and light hang cleans for conditioning but it turned out that we were home only in the late evening, and there was practically no time anymore to workout. That didn't bother me this time at all. Somehow I'm pleased to this full rest day. Hopefully tomorrow's a better energy level.

Saturday 31.10: Muscle-ups and Snatches

Saturday. Metcon, 5-4-3-2-1 of: bar mu and hang snatch (50kg). Technique, 5x5 hang power snatch (40kg). Skills, bar mu's.

My plans included muscle-ups and snatches. No actual strength work as separate stuff. Rings were first priority but somehow my back felt tight, probably due to all the cleans this week. Yesterday was good volume with them. I thought bar mu's would roll better so I changed them on the fly.

Metcon. Time, 4.54

• 5-4-3-2-1 of:
• Bar muscle-up
• Hang squat snatch, 50kg

This is obviously supposed to be a quick one. Yes, I went unbroken on both movements and got it without misses. I was not the most confident with snatches as my warm-up didn't go exactly as I planned. I took hang snatches at 40kg, then 50kg. Those were fine. Then jumped to 55kg and took 2 fails. The first one stayed in front and the second one was a poor attempt, and I didn't go under the bar. More like a snatch high pull =) For some reason there's a huge difference between my clean and snatch. The bar just feels a ton heavier when my grip is wider.

Anyway, I knew I'm gonna do the muscle-ups in a row each round, especially by catching some breath in the transitions. However, on the snatches I wasn't that cocky. So it was a positive signal to hit the first round of 5 reps unbroken. That boosted the self talk in my head and I got the remaining rounds unbroken too. Couldn't grab the barbell right away after dropping down from the mu's. And vice versa. Main goal was to go unbroken. Don't know, maybe I could have gone faster. Not much today but maybe a little. It was difficult to know my body and how it would hold on with this kind of combination.

Technique.

• 5x5 hang power snatch, 40kg

The metcon was top priority for sure but I wanted to work on speed with snatch afterwards. It's pretty sick how heavy the bar feels like doing snatches. It's always been like that. Even though I kept the bar close. That was my goal in these power snatches.

Skills.

• Bar muscle-ups (sets of 3-5-5-5 reps)

Skills in the end, couple of sets. I thought about doing triples for a total of 15 reps but after first set I decided to do 5's. Felt good about these muscle-ups in every single set. Considering the longest streak of mu's I've done in the history of crossfit (10 reps) today's sets felt pretty good. Maybe there is more in the tank than the record says.

Friday 30.10: Clean, Squat, Long metcon

Friday. Build up to a heavy triple of hang squat clean (result, 100kg). Then, 6x3 @ 85kg. Back squat 3x3 @ 130kg. Metcon, 2k row, then 10rds of: 7 c2b, 7 hspu, 20 air squat. Time, 24.50.

Had a lot of time to be spent at the gym this Friday. Quality time at its best. It turned up to be a quad and hamstring slaughter. My legs were murdered big time after the session. I took inspiration from some Froning's video clip for the cleans. Then added some back squats, and a long metcon to seal the deal.

Oly.

• Hang squat clean, build up to a heavy triple (40, 60, 70, 80, 90, 95, 100kg), then:
• Hang squat clean, 6x3 @ 85kg

My right hamstring is still tense and not feeling normal. That's the reason why I don't want to pull anything heavy from the ground. No deadlifts at all until it's perfect. These were not heavy for pulling to the power position so that was no issues. It felt great to pull from the hang position.

The cleans felt heavy at 95 kilos. The feeling was that I had to hurry to get under the barbell. The loads in cleans are not heavy considering my squats so I've never had to battle to be able to stand up from the hole. But the issue is whether I'm getting under the bar or not. Do I have the balls to drop under, and the required speed to get there.

Watching the 95kg lifts on camera I realized there's a possibility to hit 100kg benchmark for a triple. That felt super. No doubt. Once I get it around my head that I have the speed to get under the load it's possible to go heavier.

After finding a heavy triple it was time to work on the speed at 85 kilos for a bunch of triples. These were good ones, and I focused on keeping my arms straight and bringing the barbell as high as possible to the hips. I played with the video so there are some slow motions too.

Strength.

• Back squat 3x3 @ 130kg

These felt much heavier than they should. Maybe my legs had already taken that much in the cleans but these had to be battled through. Three sets were all I needed for today. There was a long metcon still waiting to be completed.

Metcon. Time, 24.50

• 2.000m row, then
• 10 rounds of:
• 7 chest-to-bar pull-up
• 7 handstand push-up
• 20 air squat

Beforehand I thought both c2b's and hspu's might be nasty in the last rounds but then again the toughest of these three was definitely the squats. Squats on squats on squats. They were sore as hell after the workout. Went unbroken on every movement.

Rowing was done at 7.30, then the 10 rounds were somewhere around 1.40 per round. C2b's were manageable. Not like I would jump right away on the pull-up bar because I didn't wanna drop down at any stage.

Hspu's were the ones I was most confident during the workout. Just knocked them through, no panic with them. Air squats were unbroken too but I had to pace them from the very first round. I realized making them fast would have brought problems. Those were not fast but they were done unbroken with a steady pace. Only in the last round I hurried to finish it faster. Great workout huh huh!

Thursday 29.10: Overhead, Bench, Clean, Ghd

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.

Wednesday 28.10: C&J, Squat, Metcon

Wednesday. Emom x 15min: clean and jerk (up to 90kg). Front squat 5x5 (across, 110kg). Front squat singles 6x1 (up to 130kg). Metcon, 3rds of: 400m row, 12 hspu, 21 box. Time, 9.07.

What a fabulous morning workout. Don't know why but lately I've learned to enjoy these early morning sessions and body has been rather fresh. Warm-up needs to be lengthy but then I get this body moving pretty well, and get good success on the sessions. Today was a lot of barbell work, then all out metcon to finish it.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 15min
• Clean and jerk singles
• 1-3min: 70kg
• 4-6min: 75kg
• 7-9min: 80kg
• 10-12min: 85kg
• 13-15min: 90kg

Classic stuff, clean and jerk. Singles, one rep per minute. Starting at 70kg, then adding 5kg after every 3 minutes. Focus was on each and every single jerk. Cleans were easy, jerk is not as light for me. There's a clear difference. I wonder how there are people who can jerk whatever they can clean. That's a big difference in my case =)

Lifts felt pretty good this time. On the video I noticed my legs didn't do enough work on the jerk. Front and back leg didn't go far enough. That means I need to push the barbell higher than I think is ideal (at least in my head). Anyway, it was great to complete the reps rather solidly and without misses.

Squats.

• Front squat 5-5-5-5-5 (across, 110kg)
• Front squat 1-1-1-1-1-1 (120, 122, 124, 126, 128, 130kg)

Front squat is the king. These were quite quick reps. That was the point. Idea was as fast as possible. Not long breaks to catch a breath on top. Weight was tolerable in that sense that I was able to keep moving. The last 2 reps of each set burned my legs. And it definitely eased to rack the barbell in my upper body too. It brought tension in my arms and shoulders.

After completing those 5's I took some extra singles. These were not planned beforehand. Just felt the urge to go heavier also. Singles, starting from 120kg, adding 2kg per rep. Goal was to go up to 130kg, and it went nicely. It's been time since doing heavier front squats.

Metcon. Time, 9.07

• 3 rounds of:
• 400m row
• 12 handstand push-up
• 21 box jump

This was genius, smart and brutal. It was a 3-rounder which made it possible to go faster from the beginning. I tried to go fast on the row too, and not pace it out just in case. Actually it was sub 1.40 on the first round, and it made me think if it is too hard or just the perfect one. Don't know but I'm happy that I started it this way. Next rounds were more like closer to 1.45 pace.

Plan was definitely to go unbroken on each element for sure. Had some of them not been so, it would have been a disappointment and disaster. Hspu's were good too. Last round was tough on the last reps. But I believe one more round would have gone in the same manner too.

Box jumps were surprisingly challenging. They just burned my thighs and hamstrings big time. Huh, it was always good to about 12-14 reps, then the flames came up my legs. This was a very good high heart beat metcon.

Tuesday 27.10: Ohs, Burpee, Du

Tuesday. Wod, 5rds of: 10 ohs (50kg), 15 burpee, 50 du.

Today was kind of a day where I didn't have strict plans whatsoever. On the way to the gym something like this started developing in my head. There were also row, c2b and sled somehow vaguely at some point but this is what it turned out to be. Weakness party =)

Metcon.

• 5 rounds of:
• 10 overhead squat, 50kg
• 15 burpee
• 50 double under

Well, burpees are not a weakness of mine but overhead squats have never been in my wheelhouse, and double unders have been at least questionable in the past months. Plan at this workout was to go unbroken. Ambitious goal regarding the double unders. Burpees would definitely be as "unbroken" as they can ever be. Just pace them properly, don't stop and keep moving. As simple as that.

Overhead squats were not that light but I felt confident in hitting the sets without dropping the barbell at any moment. The last two sets started to get a bit shaky but I got them. This pleased me a lot. It's not normal to go this "heavy" with ohs. It actually is not that heavy but I haven't done many workouts traditionally over 40kg. Lately I've tried to go heavier (50-60kg) with ohs wods.

Biggest takeaway of the day was confidence with double unders. In the past crossfit career I gained a good level of skills. Then I kind of forgot to practice them so little by little I realized the skills went away too. In the past months I started focusing more on du's to get the good rhythm back.

Currently jump rope is obeying my commands pretty well. Today I went ub on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th round. First round was good for 48 reps =) and last one was actually the only one with a miss in the middle (at 34 reps). This felt freaking awesome. It felt very natural. Just started to burn my shoulders

Monday 26.10: Snatch, Squat, Hspu, Sdhp

Monday. Emom x 10min: 2 high hang snatch (up to 55kg). Emom x 10min: 2 back squat (120kg). Metcon, 4rds of: 10 hspu, 10 sdhp (50kg).

Went to the gym today with a tight hour time slot. That was very tight taking into consideration my plans included snatch, squats and a metcon. After warm-up I put the clock running for the first emom, and it accidentally kept running after snatches. In the end I realized it was 37 minutes and all the work had been done. That was fast and efficient.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 10min
• 1-2min: 40kg
• 3-4min: 45kg
• 5-6min: 50kg
• 7-8min: 55kg
• 9-10min: 60kg

Felt pretty good to snatch today. Originally plan was to pull from the ground but then again, that includes loading the hamstrings and posterior chain tight on the first pull. That was out of question. Squatting is okay though. This is a bit strange that I have some small pain when right hamstring is under tension because of that sprained leg on the sprints on Sunday one week ago.

These were doubles up to 55 kilos, and the last lifts at 60kg were singles. I'm pretty happy considering there has been some pause from previous snatches. I had plenty of energy to snatch more but it was time to move on.

Squats.

• Every minute on the minute x 10min
• 2 back squat @ 120kg

Heavier squats were not going to happen because of the time constraints. I decided on a weight that I knew was going to be doable without much movement specific warm-up. Took couple of reps before this weight, then hit a double in touch'n'go style every minute. No pause in between. Felt actually awesome to squat. This weight was good for this session. Could have been a bit heavier but I'm happy with this one for sure.

Metcon.

• 4 rounds of:
• 10 handstand push-up
• 10 sumo deadlift high pull, 50kg

This has been on my phone's notes for maybe two weeks. I've been waiting for the right time to hit it. Actually it was 12min amrap in the beginning but I just decided to hit it today as I had mentally prepared for it even though I had to kind of rush it through. After squats I just loaded the barbell at 50kg, and threw myself against the wall for hspu's.

Both elements were completed unbroken. I reckoned handstand push-ups would be so but the sumo deadlift high pulls were a positive surprise. It was kind of difficult to know how they would feel like as I've done only 35-40kg sdhp's this far. They had this movement in the Regionals in 2015 at 60kg, total of 50 reps, in the long chipper workout. That looked really cool, and the athletes looked like they are getting crushed mentally and physically with this movement. Since then, it's been knocking in the back of my head. Very good workout, and my shoulders definitely took the biggest hit in this.

Sunday 25.10: Mu's, Clean, 21-15-9 + Run

Sunday. AM: Skills, muscle-ups emom x 8min. Emom x 12min: clean doubles. Metcon, 21-15-9 of: s2o (60kg), row for cal, ghd's. Time, 10.02. PM: Run 5k with vest.

This was a great session. Some skills to kick it off (okay those could have gone a bit better but I'll take it for now), then a good bunch of cleans in different styles. Finally a 10min session of barbell and bodyweight. In the evening I went for a 5k run.

Skills.

• Every minute on the minute x 8min:
• Ring muscle-ups, doubles and singles

In my head this was planned to be an 8min emom of 2-3 reps per minute of muscle-ups. Maybe triples in the beginning and then doubles in the latter half. Something like that, not a strict plan. I took couple of videos but there were other people on the background so I didn't put that in the recap.

It was more like doubles for the first half, and singles in the latter half. Tried to do a triple in the beginning but it didn't feel that good. It's been some time since muscle-upping last time. I took slow-mo analysis and it looks like I was rushing it a bit. Legs bent too easily when pulling up. And hips didn't take a violent extension so there was an obvious reason why it felt heavier than it used to be. But the take away was to be happy of performing mu's after a longer break.

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 12min:
• Odd min, power clean + squat clean
• Even min, 2 x hang squat clean
• 1-4min: 80kg
• 5-8min: 85kg
• 9-12min: 90kg

This is something I've been looking for! Cleans. There is a loving relationship with cleans and me. I could clean all day, every day. When pulling from the ground it still felt tight in right hamstring so I tried to be careful in those. Hang cleans didn't have any issues.

Weights started at 80kg, then 5 more kilos after every 4 minutes. That means there was three different loads during those 12 minutes. Not super heavy but for today there were great. Once I get my shit together I'll go heavier. Today I felt like my technique was pretty good, and the reps looked pretty much alike. There are some instant replays included in the video below to see there's plenty of shoulder shrug and patience in bringing the barbell to hips.

Metcon. Time, 10.02

• 21-15-9 of:
• Shoulder-to-overhead, 60kg
• Row for calories
• Ghd sit-ups

Had the same feeling for a while as yesterday. Why would I do a workout with this many jerks in a row. Then again, I thought that might be a fun variance. That's the reason this ended up in my notes anyway. Usually there's just a couple of reps unbroken in a conditioning piece but completing 21 reps in a row is another story.

If it was just for the 21 reps I might have it in me to push through unbroken. But in a workout like this, it would have been absurd for me to do it. Or would it? Don't know but I thought this was a better strategy. It might have been a good idea to just push it and thinking about a happy place at the same time.

Anyway, the first round was 13-4-4, second one 10-5, and the last one was unbroken for 9 repetitions. Rowing and ghd's were unbroken. There was a lot of walking around the gym during the transitions. Had it been less people I would have moved the rower close to the weightlifting platform. Ghd's were originally box jumps but those boxes had mysteriously disappeared during the weekend. Hopefully they make a comeback soon =)

Run.

• Run 5km with a weight vest

My plan was to just get outdoors and catch some fresh air but it somehow twisted into a 5 kilometer run with a 9kg vest. It was surprisingly fun to run. That's usually not my forte but this time it felt smooth and effortless. Kind of awkward that when I put some weight on, it feels lighter =) Anyway, this was more like a recovery run. It was a 10km/h pace for 5k.