Tuesday 17.3: Skills, Push press, Ohs, Pull-ups, Du's

Tuesday. Skills emom x 10: odd min 8 hspu, even min 12 t2b. Strength, emom x 8: push press 3 reps @ 70kg. Metcon, 15min amrap of: 6 ohs (45kg), 12 pull-ups, 24 du. Result, 261 reps.

Huh what a day at work. It was kind of a seminar and it was sitting all day long. Yesterday's cleans and front squats really felt in my legs, and just sitting down most of the day didn't help in recovery at all. Especially my quads were sore and getting more sore all the time. I wan anxious of hitting the gym right after work to get it out of my system. And it sure was a great training session. In only 45 minutes I was able to get a really good combination of workouts, and it was very effective.

Mikko is the King, 10x440lbs (200kg), for a total of 4 sets…

Skills.

• Every minute on the minute x 10 min
• Odd min, 8 handstand push-ups
• Even min, 12 toes-to-bar

This was a good warm-up for push press. I have my regular warm-up routines but today I threw them in the trash bin because of the time table at hand. There simply wasn't enough time to do everything. I got shoulders prepared for hspu's and then reckoned core and lower body would be activated in the course of t2b's. And I was pause squatting / lunging with bodyweight during some of the sets to activate the entire lower body.

Handstand push-ups were easy. Sometimes I take 'em for granted but now as I look back on the development of this movement it definitely hasn't always been this way. For quite a long time it was a goat for me but then one beautiful day I promised myself I'll fix it. And I did, by tripling the amount of volume on the movement. Didn't take too long to make it a moderate skill but nowadays I feel very natural being inverted pushing myself up against the wall.

Toes-to-bar were in this one to engage core and prepare for this way for the push press. These were also kind of light stuff. Had I continued this for multiple rounds they might have been tougher. Or if this was a metcon for time without the recovery between stations it would obviously be another case.

Strength.

• Every minute on the minute x 8 min
• 3 push press @ 70kg

Overhead strength is something I've been mentally struggling lately. It's been on the back of my head to improve this element. No matter if it's shoulder press, push press, push jerk, split jerk or snatch but having a barbell overhead is somehow brutally beautiful, and I want to be okay in that sense.

These were triples in emom style. Only 70kg, shouldn't be a problem. And it wasn't. The only problem was that my left shoulder took some pain in the last rounds. Don't know the reason but it was around 4 rounds went perfectly and then it was a little difficult to straighten my left arm fully because there was a stabbing pain in the shoulder. Probably something that will go away on its own I'd say. No biggie, I managed to work through the rest of the repetitions.

Metcon. Result, 261 reps (6 rounds + 3 pull-ups)

• 15 min amrap of:
• 6 overhead squat, 45kg
• 12 pull-up
• 24 double under

It was great that these two previous parts were emoms so I had time for a good old school stuff in the end. Ohs, pull-ups and jump rope, good combo. Why these? Because overhead squat is not a strength by any means, and doing it in nanos is even more challenging due to mobility restrictions. Secondly, pull-ups are such a basic element in crossfit that I prefer it as a strength rather than a weakness. If you're not good in pulling, there are going to be issues in metcons. Du's seem to be periodical, sometimes they roll very well and in other cases they are moderate. So I wanted to practice them in a metcon under higher heart rate.

Kara Webb 15.3

Ohs went great. Especially in completing them without weightlifting shoes I always consider it a success story. Had no problems in going well under parallel. In weightlifting shoes I hit the bottom on a regular basis. Pull-ups went unbroken even though they got heavy towards the end. I could have probably knocked out more reps in this workout had I cut the pull-ups (and had the barbell close to the pull-up bar instead of walking around the gym) but I really wanted to do 'em ub to practice hanging in the pull-up bar under tension.

Double unders had some tripping there but I blame it on the surroundings this time =) I had to do the jumping in such narrow places that I was constantly afraid of the jump rope hitting something or someone. That probably went under my skin and I lost concentration for a while at times. This was a very good and efficient training session and I'm very happy that there was enough time to push through each part of it!