Monday 16.11: Run 5k

Monday. Active recovery, run 5k.

There was simply no time for a training session today after work, which didn't bother me at all this time. We spent some quality time with my wife, and then in the evening I went for a recovery run. This was more like a jog. I went 10km/h pace for 5 kilometers so it took half an hour to get the distance done. It felt great to move some feet in a crispy autumn weather. Okay it was wet but for running the weather was actually good and easy to get breath in the lungs.

Sunday 15.11: Back squat session

Sunday. Back squat, build up to a heavy single (142kg). Then 6x3 @ 90kg of that max (130kg).

This was almost a recovery day. Had some thoughts about just laying on the sofa or go running. Then I woke up back to reality and went squatting. This took about an hour to complete with all the warm-ups included. Purely a strength session this Sunday.

Strength.

• Back squat
• Build up to a heavy single (110, 115, 120, 125, 130, 135, 140, 142kg). Then,
• 6x3 @ 90% of that single (130kg)
• Rest 2min between sets

This was a lot of fun. I wanted to go heavy on the singles, and these numbers seemed to be around my max today. Reps felt heavy from about 130kg onwards but they still looked alright on camera. Real battle came at 140 kilos, and the 142kg felt at today's max for today. I'm happy on the form I was able to hold on to on each lift.

Focus points for the squats. Keep the chest up, and elbows down. Pull the bar down so that the elbows would be directly under the bar. As the 130kg sets started to feel heavier, I started to focus on this and the package felt a lot tighter and much more like it is in my control better.

First rep at 130kg sets was easier, second one tighter and some of the third reps were good grinding. My plan was to complete these sets without stopping for too long on top. That always seems to make the reps a lot heavier.

Saturday 14.11: Long emom

Saturday. Emom x 32min: 1st min: 20m sled push, 2nd min: 15 ghd, 3rd min: 30 du, 4th min: 15 box.

Facts in the morning. Hamstrings and glutes are sore as hell. Left palm is torn up from muscle-ups and right hand ring finger was cut to bleed pretty badly. That means to say this body wasn't at its best shape today =) Can't hold on to basically anything and legs were smashed from all the squatting. There was still no doubt of me wanting to hit another training session. It makes mentally good. One good option was to go running but there was no time for that as I went to work today as well. There are sometimes these rare occasions that I'm working on weekends too which makes it a bit more challenging to fit in a training session as I want to spend quality time with my wife too.

Metcon.

• Every minute on the minute x 32 minutes
• 1st minute: 20m sled push, 80kg (+sled)
• 2nd minute: 15 ghd sit-ups
• 3rd minute: 30 double unders
• 4th minute: 15 box jumps

This needed to be a quick session. Not much warm-up this time. Movements were planned so that there is no barbell / kettlebell / dumbbell work because holding on to those would not feel with these hands right now. Double unders were the first element I threw in. Needed to practice those. This was more like an easy pace workout.

Breathing stayed in control throughout the workout. Sometimes these 20-30 minute emoms are horrible, and it gets mental big time. The only thing that got under my skin were my shins. They didn't tolerate well the volume of double unders and box jumps. Du's didn't go that well. They've been very good lately so this was a minor setback. Next time I'll hopefully dominate them again. Jumping right away to box jumps started to reflect some shin pain in the latter half of the workout. Ghd's were probably the easiest part of this one.

Friday 13.11: Overhead, Squat, Burpee, Box overs

Friday. Overhead strength, shoulder press 1-1-1 (65kg), push press 1-1-1 (75kg), push jerk 1-1-1 (85kg), split jerk 1x95kg. Emom x 10min: 3 back squat @ 120kg. Metcon, 30 burpee, 30 box jump overs. Time, 2.20

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.

Overhead. Compare to 23.10.2015

• Shoulder press 1-1-1 (65kg)
• Push press 1-1-1 (75kg)
• Push jerk 1-1-1 (85kg). Second rep was a fail
• Split jerk 1 (95kg)

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 12.11: Muscle-ups, Bench, Squat

Thursday. Skills, muscle-ups 7x3. Metcon, 50 bench for time @ 70kg. Every time you rack the bar, complete 30 air squats on the spot. Time, 9.20.

Plan was a bit loose this Thursday. I had plenty of stuff in my head as my car's engine started. It turned out to be muscle-ups for starters. Then building up to a heavy single on the bench press, and finishing the session with bench related metcon. My hand ripped so there was no chance for deadlifts which was supposed to be on the agenda as well.

Skills.

• Muscle-ups, 7 sets of triples

Got to admit I wasn't approaching the rings with huge confidence. Reason for this was there's been time since doing ring mu's last time, and I remember they didn't go too well that time. With this in mind it was a hugely positive surprise to knock the triples without any issues. To be honest, these were probably the easiest sets of muscle-ups I've done in my life. At least in the top performances. Now as I think about it afterwards, it might have been a good idea to smash a new record of consecutive repetitions but I stuck to my plan of triples.

Didn't have a timer rolling but it was basically some walking around the gym, chalking hands and getting back to rings. I felt after every set there is room for more work. Usually triples are not this easy, and it might feel like a huge battle to get 3 reps in one set =) Don't know why this was from another planet but at least my kip was patient. I kept my get together, let the body swing fiercely backwards on the way down, and then I didn't rush the pull on the way up.

On the last set I decided to go for more reps. It turned out to be 4 reps in total after which I felt my hand ripped so I came down. Feeling was true as I just witnessed one of the biggest rips I've had ever. This is at least the size of my thumb nail. Anyway, this was a huge thing to boost confidence on the rings. Total of 22 reps.

Metcon. Time, 9.20. Compare to 22.11.2013

• 50 bench press for time @ 70kg
• Every time you rack the barbell, complete 30 air squats on the spot
• Bench was 10-8-7-6-6-5-4-4 reps

Plan was to build up to a heavy single before starting the workout, just to fool the body by doing heavier reps first. Then the weight on the actual metcon wouldn't feel that tough. I decided to go with 70kg which I thought would be something like 7-9 sets. This was just a gut feeling. Warm-up sets were 6x50, 6x70, 3x80, 1x90, 1x95, 1x100kg.

Well I put the sets above in the bullet point and it went pretty much the way I thought and planned. My goal was not to look for the most ideal time but more like keep moving all the time. Not recover too much after air squats to get maybe a bigger set of bench done, vice versa. Go back on the bench, grab the barbell and do as many as you can. Don't know if I could have completed 50 reps with fewer sets. I wanted to get my heart rate up and make this feel on the lungs too, not just chest / triceps / upper body.

Actually what hurt the most in this one were my quads. Went unbroken on the air squats, deep ones, and with good rhythm. They never got a good recovery so completing 210 reps in sets of 30 really burned my legs. This was a good workout, and

Wednesday 11.11: Clean and jerk, Front squat

Wednesday. Emom x 9min: clean and jerk (up to 90kg). Front squat 5x3 @ 120kg.

Felt good to get back in the gym. It's been busy times at work so getting to the gym is a perfect way to empty all the work related thoughts and focus on the barbell. Bar is always ready to work with you, no matter what. Today's agenda was clean and jerks and front squats. Wasn't mentally ready for conditioning piece as my body was a bit beaten up.

Got these new wrist straps from Toni for birthday =)

Oly.

• Every minute on the minute x 9 minutes:
• Clean and jerk
• 1-3min: 80kg
• 4-6min: 85kg
• 7-9min: 90kg

It was great to put the bar overhead. Lately I've had no issues with my elbows. At some point there seemed to be some nagging pain after every press / jerk session. Especially when going over 80kg weights. Today I started at this load, kept knocking singles for 3 minutes, then added 5kg after every 3 min again. Last weight was 90kg, and it made me happy inside that the weight came up pretty nicely.

Cleans were the easy part of these lifts. My clean is rather strong compared to overhead strength so picking these weights from the floor brought no issues whatsoever. Jerks were clearly heavier. These are not baby weights for me. Don't know where the current max stands right now but those last jerks @ 90kg were good battles. I would say something around 95-100kg might be the max right now.

Strength.

• Front squat 3-3-3-3-3 (120kg)

Building it up to 120kg triples by doing warm-up sets at 5x60kg, 3x90kg, 1x110kg. Legs were pretty well up for the challenge after clean and jerks as I took them up as squat cleans. Total of 5x3 across at 120kg.

I'm happy on the way I was able to maintain form on these squats. The last rep was a good grind in each of the sets, and I had to really push it. Other than that my elbows stayed up front as they should be. And it didn't take an eternity to finish the sets. Goal was to do them rather fast without stopping and breathing on top for too long.

In the end I did mobility for overhead squats. There is one L1 crossfit trainer at the gym as my training partner - Lauri - who is always ready to give good tips for mobility, and efficiency in movements. I'm ready to soak everything in. He gave me tasks to do for overhead squat mobility. Those really put my back and lats on fire, in a good way.

Tuesday 10.11: CF Open 12.3, Row, Ghd

Tuesday. CF Open 12.3, 18min amrap of: 15 box, 12 s2o (53kg), 9 t2b. Result, 292 reps (PR). Cashout, 5rds of: 300m row, 15 ghd.

Great session! My legs were out of control due to yesterday's training session. I took couple of push jerks to get used to heavier weights before the metcon, then hit one benchmark workout from the 2012 Crossfit Open. In the end it was just some extra work to flush my legs from that tough workout.

CF Open 12.3. Result, 292 reps (8 rounds + 4 box jump, PR)

• 18min amrap of:
• 15 box jump
• 12 shoulder-to-overhead, 53kg
• 9 toes-to-bar

This is something I've done maybe 3 times or so. It's gone to my guts every single time. Today it was tough because my legs were burning after the first round. Monday's training session had its effect for sure. But hey, actually something good happened before the timer went on. I took push jerks up to 85kg which is heaviest I've ever done this style. It was 5x40, 50, 60kg, then 3x70, 1x80 and 85kg. And that last rep felt very good and stabile, no problem whatsoever. There was room for record for sure.

Back to the workout. Box jumps and t2b's were unbroken each round. Boxes definitely take care that breathing is sky rocketing throughout the workout. But the burn came just after the box jumps had been completed. They went fine and I got a good rhythm every round.

T2b's were unbroken too. My grip started to slip on the last rounds but there was no doubt of hitting them in a row every round. Core felt great on those. But the beef of this wod is the part where barbell action takes place, hands down. I've tried both styles: unbroken and breaking it to two sets. Of course unbroken sounds good but that takes a bit more recovery between movements.

Today I went on by feeling. First 2 rounds were unbroken, then I started to complete it in 7-5 for most of the rounds. At some point I did 8-4. Damned I was sweating a lot, and heart beat was heavy for probably the last 15 minutes. There was some mental strength though as I was able to still keep moving, and keeping the transitions modest. End result was a PR which is always good news.

Workout. Not for time

• 5 rounds of:
• 300m row
• 15 ghd sit-ups

My tank was pretty much empty after the main workout of the day and legs didn't recover enough to hit another metcon with full force. So this portion was more like to do some extra work, and recover so tomorrow I'd be back in action. And legs especially. Pace was slow on the rower but ghd's unbroken. There I tried to engage hip flexors more than before.

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.