Tuesday 4.11: Front squat, Row, Pistols, T2b

Tuesday. Strength, 8x4 front squat (max 115kg). Row, 2k, time 7.17. Gymnastics, 50 pistols, 50 t2b.

Have to advertise that it's my birthday today =) I turned 35 on this date but I'm feeling like a little kid in this body. Thanks to this new sport I've done for a little over 2 years now. Through my work I've had the privilege of getting to know Toni who's my main man. He had arranged a surprise party at work in the morning. He tried to delay my arrival at work station together with Pauliina so my team would have the possibility to goof around at my office. You'll see the pictures below. Awesome surprise to kick the day off!

Strength.

• Front squat 8x4 (90, 100, 110, 110, 112.5, 112.5, 112.5, 115kg)

After office hours I went downstairs to train. My right wrist has some incredible pain which came from nowhere. No reason whatsoever but all of a sudden it's been bothering me for couple of days, and it's getting worse by the day. Today I went to see a nurse who practically just booked me a doctor's appointment for Thursday. So I'll keep on grinding, just try to pick movements that don't bring too much pressure on the hand. I guess that means more squats haha

I had planned front squats but that wrist got me to think is it possible. I tried and managed to go for it. Didn't max out at it but more like heavy sets of 4 reps. Started the sets at lower weights @90kg and climbed up to around 110kg for most of the sets. I was thinking about my hand in every set and didn't dare to go higher. The last sets at 112.5-115kg were heavy anyway. It felt good to do front squats after a while. It's been mostly back squats lately.

Row. Time, 7.17

• 2.000m

The squats might have had an effect because rowing was a bit on the tough side. On average this was 1.49/500m. This wasn't a row session with record breaking numbers in sight when I took the first stroke. Main focus was on steady pace throughout the 7+min. In the beginning I rowed closer to 1.45, then at some point it was around 1.50. Towards the end it was tough to keep the pace at those figures.

The conclusion is that maybe rowing could be more involved in my training. I've been dreaming of having a concept2 of my own. At our current home there's definitely not room for that but in the future my gut feeling is that we're gonna invest in this beauty.

Gymnastics.

• 50 pistol squats
• 50 toes-to-bar

These were more like skills training but with good intensity. After all the work done in the front squats and rowing I still craved for some more action. I took 50 pistols, it took me about 3 minutes, then hopped on to the pull-up bar for another 50 reps on t2b. That took about 2:30 to finish it. I like those pistol squats. However, they show up quite rarely in metcons or in any other training session. These were mostly done in sets of 3 reps per leg, alternating after those small sets. I figured balance is easier to hold for a few reps in a row per leg.

My left leg is stronger and more balanced than the right one. Now I didn't pay attention is there difference in ankle mobility or is it something else. But at least left side can take more pressure and shorter recovery to perform strong.

Usually I dominate toes-to-bar movement (well, maybe that was a bit too strongly said) but they bring no issues whatsoever. My legs were worn out from the 3 previous parts of this training session so I did 20 reps in a row, then mostly 5's till the end. The last 10 reps were more like triples, doubles and singles. Today's session was very lower body dominated, and very good in a lot of ways. I got a lot of front squats, rowing for metcon and pistols for skills after a long break.

It was heart-warming to come home for a ready dinner table prepared by my loved one. Pauliina had made the entire house look beautiful and the table was served as well. I love this woman!