Wednesday 3.9: Hspu, Handstand, Burpees

Wednesday. Gymnastics, hspu max reps (PR 22 reps). Finish up to 50 reps, for quality. Skills, handstand. Metcon, 40-30-20-10 burpees with 3-2-1min rest between sets. Time 9.56 (including 6min rest).

This day was dedicated to bodyweight movements and gymnastics. Wanted to go light this time, at least regarding weights. It felt like a great opportunity to test out max effort of handstand push-ups, then I took handstand for couple of sets and finished the training session with a burpee fiesta to work on my engine. Took some 15 minutes of mobility after training, felt very good on this body.

Real time was 9.56, it took me couple of seconds to stop the clock running

Gymnastics.

• Max effort, handstand push-ups, PR 22 reps
• Then finish off to complete a total of 50 reps

Did a good classic warm-up drills to get myself ready and took couple of hspu's to get this body prepared for what's up next. Then it was time to throw myself inverted against the wall and give it my best shot. Previous PR was 18 reps and I felt like it's time to crush this one. First 10 reps were easy, at 15 reps it got heavy, and at 17-18 reps I had to stop for a second at the bottom position. I was able to push through the worst and just kept going until 22 reps. Then I came off the wall, didn't get a no-rep but it felt like the wall was there. This left something to dream of still. 25 reps will be there in the future. This was a good meter to see where I am at currently with hspu's.

After recovering for a while I took another set of max reps and got 14 in a row. Third max set was 12 reps. That equalled 48 reps and I took couple of reps before the first set so let's say there was about 50 reps, a little over. I'm very happy, not only on the PR, but also on begin able to put out numbers like 14 and 12 reps in second and third set.

Skills.

• Handstand

It's been while since I've tried handstand. For some odd reason I've forgotten this one. Not intentionally, just haven't remembered to practice this skill. There's not much space at our gym, you've seen it in video clips, but that's not a good excuse. Currently as my handstand skills have improved I know the space is enough for me. And it was today as well. I tried to stay as still as possible in a good hollow position but in reality I had to take small steps with my hands to find balance. The first attempt was the longest, I feel like I stayed inverted for eternity. The following attempts were shorter in nature but I probably stayed better within couple of hand steps.

Rob O smashing huge numbers on thrusters

Metcon. Time 9.56 (including 6min rest periods, working time 3.56). Compare to 25.9.2013

• 40 burpees
• 3min rest
• 30 burpees
• 2min rest
• 20 burpees
• 1min rest
• 10 burpees

This kind of workout is great, interval burpees, huh… This is the second time I've done this kind of hardcore burpee sets. It's almost precisely one year ago, the difference was that the descending ladder back then started from 50 reps, totaling 150 reps. Today's set was 100 reps. The nature of the workout is tough. Normally in a metcon it's impossible to go "out of the gates" with burpees, a.k.a. at full speed all the time. In this kind of interval stuff you gotta go with all you got.

40 burpees as fast as you can. I got 26 reps in 60 seconds and 1:37 to finish the 40 reps. If you look at the picture above, cut about 2 seconds from each interval because I had to click the round-button after each set. Three minute rest was enough to get recovered. I felt it in my upper body before dropping my chest to the deck for the second set (30 burpees). At that one I had to grind through the last about 8 reps. Pace stayed pretty much the same, I tried to look at the clock after 26 reps and it was 20 reps again. That means to say the pace was identical. The last reps were tough but I tried to forget it and keep going.

Third set  - 20 reps - was mentally easier but the recovery period was cut shorter too. So the last reps, maybe 6 of them, felt bad but there was no option but to push through. I guess it took me about 46 seconds so the pace was once again the same. It helped a lot that a friend of mine was cheering me on the last burpees. Last set was the easiest, it was 10 reps only so just don't think about it, just go up and down. It was something like 20 seconds, maybe a little more. These might have been the quickest reps I got in this workout.

It was a great way to get lungs to work at max effort. It was also pleasing to get a PR on bodyweight movement and the hspu's rocked very well in general too.