Golf and Tabata!

Started the day with hitting a bucket of golf balls! I've started playing golf again--got new Callaway clubs and I am reday to go! Last time I played was '05 so it's really a comeback! I've booked a refresh training day on August 9, and my aim is to get a steady game and pass 36 this season. Next up is to get a handicap below 24 early-on next season. It would be really cool to be able to play at Bro Hof (see pix of this amazing plaze). Went for lunch there today (The Castle :-) )and it was some place to see.

It was then time today for a tough 1 h CrossFit set at Sats Tule. Started with mobility exercises and had a first try at "pistols" with help from David the Trainer. On to OHS where I managed to get a new PR 6x40 kg, which felt great!

Next up was 2x Tabata (1 Tabata is 4 min of 20 sec on, 10 sec off) with Deadlifts (80 kg), mixed with Burpees. Eight minutes that really got the heart punding. Then on to 2xTabata of Push Press and Squats.

Back squats and Mini-Cindy!

One hour CrossFit workout yestersday focusing on heavy lifts similar to last week. Started out with OHS --we wanna build steady performance and increases. I didn't go all the way matching my PR of 5x40kg this time, but will probably get to it on Thursday.

Continued with Back squats 3x5 80 kg and 1x5 90 kg--I am using a new technique and I really have to give it all to do the 90 kg reps. I am having the bar slightly higher up on shoulder/neck, making me use the legs a bit more than the upper body strength compared to before.

Funny muscle pix showing back squats--just rented the movie Bigger Stronger Faster about the enormous use of Steroids (US bases documentary, but probably applicable for the rest of the World also, as we share many of the same ideals). Will be interesting to watch, and at the same time probably freightening how many uses these bullshit preparations. The thesis is that people are ready to use "anything" to get ahead--to cheat and put your self in serious danger (juicing) did not matter at all--It's all about winning and getting ahead to any price. Will report back when I've watched it!

Next up Shoulder Presses 3x5 40kg--great exercise that's starting to give results. Ended the set with a mini Cindy i.e 1o min of max reps (normal Cindy is 20 min). I finished six rounds in 10 min, since it was the end of a quite heavy set I'm ok with my performance--will get back to Cindy soon 'though ;-)

"Cindy"

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes (Mini Cindy 10 min!) as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Check this out from Stronglifts.com

Benefits of The Squat. Every muscle works when you Squat: legs move the weight, abs & lower back stabilize, upper-back stays tight, arms squeeze the bar, etc. The Squat is a full body exercise.

• Builds Muscle. You can use heavy weight when doing the Squat. Heavy weight means more stress. This stress causes a hormonal response: increased testosterone levels. Meaning more muscle.
• Leg Strength. Squats strengthen your legs by working them through a full range of motion. This helps all sports but also daily activities. No more bending over to pick up an object, you can just Squat.
• Hip Flexibility. While you need hip flexibility for Squats, once you have this flexibility, doing Squats maintains it.
• Knee Stability. Squats done with proper technique, with the bar coming below parallel, strengthen your knees.

PR OHS and Cray fish Premiere

It was time for 1 h crossfit at SATS Tule on Thursday! Worked hard and managed to get a new PR in OHS (see example of this cool exercise below) 5x40 kg. All in all I think I managed to do 4x5 reps with various weights leading up to 40 kg. Backsquats followed with 90 kg 3x5 reps.. were going to do an extra round of 5x90 kg but it was not to be this time. Finished with 2x lunges walk, lifting a 10kg (correction) bell overhead mixed with Burpees 21 & 15 reps. All in All great sets and end of the weeks-weekday training.

The overhead squat is a demanding, but rewarding, whole-body exercise. It builds strength and flexibility in the shoulders and core, especially the lower back, as well as the legs. It improves balance and coordination. In Dan John's words, it "makes the body one piece".

We also premiered the cray fish season that officially starts in August, with "småländska kräftor" on Friday! Today's lunch was a fantastic US steak bought at NK Saluhallen, with some awesome pasta Tünde made (with mini-scallops) ..mums!!!

Tuesday workout

New set yesterday-1 h crossfit workout at Sats Tule. Great to be back with the heavy weights as last week was mainly outdoors with running and short crossfit exercise-circles.

Started with backstretches, which is key to work up mobility that helps all my exercises. On to OHS, mixed with Pullups (4x5 with added weight on left/right foot) and Shoulder Presses (4x5 40 kg). Then Deadlifts, where the main set was 4x5 with 100kg weights. The new deadlift technique is working well, and I can't wait to beat my PR of 137,5 kg soon! Finished with a stomach circle of Knees-To-Elbowes mixed with Situps (14-9-6 reps).

Today is my birthday and it's been an amazing day of family celebration with good food and people. Time for Crossfit again tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it!

Sunday last call!

Just finished my "morning set" at 23.20! Did 100 pushups and 100 situps in the sequence 40 (PU-straight w/o break)-10-25-25 while cranking the first four Velvet Revlover songs on Libertad (13 min)! Feels great..time for bed.

And note for next week.. plan ahead and don't be such a time optimist.

Saturday Burpees

Went to Karlberg to do some technique at the Obstacle course, didn't do any complete runs 'though today. Today's workout consisted of 100 burpees, I finished in 12:05 min--quite some work actually! The on to a 4 k run I'm quite happy with.

Enjoyed the rest of the day with mine and my brothers families at Skansen in Stockholm. Awesome day!

Down on the upside!

Went for an outdoor run (about 4k) and a mini-crossfit workout to blow off some steam after work and get out in the nice weather. Did the 10x10 (a total of 100 each) exercise of Squats, Pushups and Situps. Didn't go for max time and finished in about 13 min. Ran really well.

Thu-Sun: PR in Obstacle course 5:35!

Hey! Here's the recap for the rest of the week -- Thursday to Sunday. Performed a 1 h Crossfit session on Thursday at Sats Tule: Practicing headstanding and new technique for HS-pushups. On to Deadlifts using the new technique that I learned last week. We're aiming high and want to go way over my currrent PR that is 137,5 kg, and are starting to build solid performance. Today we went to 2x5x 110 kg, also doing 2x5 100 kg etc.. Ended the set with 3x 400 m, 15-12-9 Kettlebell swings (24 kg), 12 pushups. I'm quite happy with my current cardio performance, that has never been better. Celebrated with some good US entrecote (again amazing taste) and 1 glas of Chablis ;-). Here's a funny thing I cought this morning on TV-- the great chef Anthony Bourdain made a comment about "any monkey can cook a beef" -- ha ha .. I will try to learn some new good dishes as we go along! (the 2nd pix is a new Tünde speciality)

Friday was Estelle's 1 year birthday and an amazing day in good company. Then on to Saturday: Tünde's dad Lajos was showing some of his Karate moves at Karlberg (see pix) as we were going to the obstacle course-- He's been training martial arts for along time and is now showing great interest in crossfit to further develop his skills. This is the 3rd time in three weeks I'm attacking the course and was looking for some improvements in time and technique.

My 1st run was a new PR of 6:03 min, but on the 2nd run I managed a new and improved PR 5:35 min! Felt awsome as I still easily can fix some improvements. It also helped as Lajos and "Bogie" were filming and keeping track of my performance! My objective is under 5 min before the end of the summer.

Mon-Wed. Tue: Crossfit PR OHS

Today: Check out the morning drop--just added Financial Times to my daily read (will cancel DN as 4 papers are way to much to keep up with) .. ha ha I actually went up at 5.30 to read, even as I've got vacation this week! As usual awesome breakfast with Kvarg/Curd mixed with walnuts, lin-seeds, and fresh strawberries (the pix is before makin' the "mush").

Tuesday was 1 h crossfit. Started out with a PR in Over Head Squats (OHS), 3x 5 x 37,5 Kg. Nice as I've worked on the stance quite a bit. My problem is not keeping the weights over the shoulders, it's to get the squats correctly. Then on to a run-of 5x : 3 Shoulder Presses, 5 Shoulder Pushes, 10 Burpee Pullups. I ended up with 40 Burpee Pullups (I cut 10 due to time), we also changed weights to 20 kg for the 3-5 run of Shoulder exercises to get better flow.

Finished the day with an awesome US Nebraska steak, and a glass of surprisingly good Hungarian wine (Egri - Bikavér 1989)!

Breakthrough in Obstacle Course

Went for a Sunday evening run and to get goin' on the Obstacle Course at Karlberg again. I did rounds. First run 7:03 which was more a run-thorugh to warm-up and get comfortable. The time was a small improvement from last weeks best run (I tried the course for the first time last week.) But, on the second run things went really well and I got a new PR that I'm happy with: 6 min 11 sec. I approached the obstacles better and was more pumped-up about getting a good time. My aim is to come down to under six min this week :-)

Today's Food:

Breakfast: 100g Ham and 2 Eggs, and some Strawberries & Rasberrys

Lunch: BBQ Turkey Pizza at Vapinao --family outing..the evening exercise made up for the pizza :-)

Dinner: Lamb Chops, Melons and BBQ Chicken (see pix)

Yesterday was 4th of July -- and we celebrated our US friends in style by BBQ-ing! I got some really nice meat and fish-skewer and we had a kick-ass evening with great company. Miss the US, and we'll go there again as Estelle gets older to be able to make the most out of it.

Technique & Entrecôte

Todays set consisted of a lot of technique practice. The objective is get improvements to be able take the following exercises to the next level: Over Head Squats 3x5 , Handstand Pushups, and Dead lifts 4x5x 100 kg (20 lifts) combined with burpees 4x10 reps. Overall good and lots to learn--Deadlifts will see big improvements, and for OHS it's a must to get it right all the time.

Dinner: US (Nebraska) entrecôte -- Amazing flavour!