Sunday 4.5: Push press and rowing

Sunday. Strength, 7x3 push press. Workout, 3rds of: 2min amrap of push press (60kg), 2min rest. Result, 67 reps. Cardio, 8x250m row.

Shoulder burn, check! Old school session of press strength, getting those shoulders stronger. Then I remembered a workout Mikko Salo said he used to do a lot back in the days to build up strength in his shoulders. I went after that one for a good reason. And finally some rowing sprints to build up the engine.

80kg

Strength.

• Push press 7x3 (70, 75, 77.5, 80, 80, 80, 80kg)

I actually like to put stuff overhead a lot. Presses or jerks, don't mind, as long as it gets heavy and puts my shoulders to test. Today it was time to do push presses instead of push / split jerks. I've done them probably more because I have wanted to work on my technique. Plus you get a chance to overload the barbell compared to shoulder / push press.

Didn't want to max out on this one, just took several triples with weights that are manageable. I don't know where my max is but at least I did 90kg press some times ago in an overhead complex workout. That press was accompanied with 3 more split jerks. So completing triples at 80kg is not maxing out. It was a good session though, it started to feel on my shoulders and I didn't take the presses for granted. There was lots of push presses ahead of me anyway so I stayed at 80kg on the last sets.

Push press recap

Workout. Compare to 22.12.2013

• 3 rounds of:
• 2 min amrap of push press (60kg)
• 2 min rest
• Result, 23+22+22 reps

I remember Mikko Salo explaining his training methods in one video and revealing this workout was something he used to do a lot couple of years ago to build up his strength. And he definitely is strong on shoulders!

I took some weight off the barbell and left it at 60kg, that should be a weight I'm able to move for several reps. Having too much stuff on the barbell would be of no use at all and having it too light would be waste of time. Afterwards thinking, 60kg was perfect to me. This was the 3rd time me doing this one. First time was with 50kg and last time was @ 60kg. I was able to top me score with the previous one by 10 reps, that's good progress on this one for me.

First round of the amrap workout

On the first round I created a strategy on the fly and copied that to the remaining amraps as well. I took as many reps as possible on the first attempt, then put the bar down, took another shot at it at around 45 seconds and then for the third time when there was something like 35 seconds left in the clock. In some rounds I took the last attempt with 10 seconds left in the clock. I'm very happy on the balanced performance on this one. That is something I always look after in my training. I'd like to see myself perform like Rich Froning himself. He never rushes. Steady pace from the beginning to the end, with quite even round times in workouts. And in the end he comes by those guys that were gassing in the beginning. There was only 1 rep difference in these three sets.

Cardio.

• 8x250m row

Some engine work in the end. For a total of 8 sets of short sprints, 250m each. I took 'em about in every 2 minutes, didn't mind that much about the timer though. My first split - which you can witness below - was the fastest. I wanted to see how quickly I could smash that. It was about 44 seconds, it was sub 1.30 all the way, about 1.27-1.29. Definitely the fastest I've ever rowed.

My legs were very sore when I entered the gym so i didn't wanna burn them more that much. The first 4 sets I went at around 1.30 pace, the latter half of the workout I took it easier, with probably 1.35 pace. This is a short distance to row, it takes about 20 strokes to get there. Rowing is a king movement to build a strong motor, no doubt! I like to do these intervals with varying distances, short, long and intermediate.