2017 – Page 24 – Nick Momrik's Fitness Logs

Damn Back

Complete rest day yesterday, but actually felt pretty good after so much deadlift volume. Couple guys are sick and one out of town, so I was on my own today.

Front Squat

Add another 0-5-10# for 3×6.

6×45#
6×135
6×185
6×225
6×255
3×255

Anndddd I tweaked my back on that 3rd rep of the 2nd set. Maybe I worked up too quick or maybe the deadlifts took a toll on me from Wednesday. Tried to stretch it out, but was what typically happens so felt fine as long as I didn’t get in certain positions. So no more front squats and no working up to a 2RM C&J. Wanted to see if I could do some of the other C&J work so I warmed up the movement.

C&J

4×45#
4×95
4×135

Felt fine, especially if I kept good positions, so I strapped on the belt.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 3 Sets

6 TnG C&J (155#)

Actually felt better than 155 ever has for cycling reps. Compared to 135 it still feels awkward and much harder to re-hook grip the bar between reps, which I did about for about half of them. Took me 20 seconds per set I think.

Conditioning

20:00 AMRAP

15 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
10 T2B
10 Push-ups
40s Airdyne (AD2)

Due to my back I took out the programmed 5 power cleans and put in the push-ups and Airdyne instead so I could keep moving for 20 minutes. All wall ball sets were unbroken without a problem. I did the toes-to-bars 5-5 every round and they actually felt really good. Push-ups were unbroken as well and I had an ok pace on the AD, but wasn’t pushing it. Finished with 7+18 and the AD said I did 106 calories. The WOD as written would have easily been 10+ rounds and it would have been nasty!

Excited I was able to do 14 sets of 5 T2B with no fatigue setting in. Didn’t wear any grips either. Granted it was a much longer workout so the time between sets was much more than the Tabata or EMOM volume work. It was a fight to try and stick to more of a straight leg kip; my body kept wanting to my do bicycle version. With the 73 reps and 80 the other day it’s over 150 T2B this week!

Skipped out on muscle-up work because everyone was leaving the gym and I didn’t want to do too much with my back. Will try to get them in tomorrow.

Pick Things Up

Owww! Feels like I’ve been run over by a truck, especially in my shoulders and upper back. Calves, legs, low back, biceps, and hands are all sore too. Another day at the gym though. I did some bottom squat hold, hammy stretch, air squats, and shoulder stretching to get a little loose.

Deadlift

Work up to 4×4 @ 80% and then add 5-10# to last weeks 20RM.

8×45#
8×155
4×245
4×315
4×355
4×385
4x4x405
20×295

Wasn’t sure how the 80% would feel but I made fine. Slightly shy of using the % off my all-time PR, but I haven’t pulled anything near that 515 in years. I decided to take a 20 pound jump on the 20 rep today. When I picked up the first rep I couldn’t believe how light it felt, but when I got to 5 I could tell it was going to be bad. In the last 5 reps I had to take it slower to make sure I got set and didn’t pull anything. What a burn!

Conditioning

15:00 EMOM

14 Calorie Row
35s Airdyne
40 Double Unders

We took it easy here and used it as aerobic work. It did help to loosen things back up after the heavy deads.

7:00 AMRAP

3-6-9-12…

Dumbbell Thrusters (50#)
Deadlift (155#)

Since dumbbells are coming to the Open, figured we might as well get in some practice. The workout was written with 95# thrusters, so why not make it harder?! 🙂 Took my dumbbells to the gym and will try to use them here and there when they fit our workouts. Dumbbell thrusters are just as terrible as I remember. I did 3-6-9 unbroken, then 7-5 and 6-5-4. I was feeling the burn on the set of 12 deadlifts so did those 7-5 too like a pussy. Had to hold on to the bar in my set of 15 deads and really rush the last 5 reps, but made it just before the clock went off to finish the round of 15s. Probably not a very good score but I tied Bryan for once and it was good to get in some experience with the DBs. This was nasty after already having moved so much weight on the deadlifts.

Reality

My shoulders and upper back have felt beat up all day from last night’s workout. Not much of a warm-up today other than moving around a bit.

2ewsday Mash-up

~~100~~ 46 HSPU
- 10 (-ish) Box Jumps (36 30″) at the start of every minute, including the first
5:00 Rest
100 Calorie ~~Assault Bike~~ Row
- 20 Double Unders at the start of every minute, including the first

I thought maybe I’d scale down to 70 handstand push-ups, but would probably be a stretch since the aim of these workouts has been 10 minutes in length. No way we were doing 36″ jumps though; 30 inches was plenty!

Update: Turns out they fucked up the programming again and it was only supposed to be 5 box jumps to start each minute! Would have made a huge difference.

I started out with 10 jumps at 30″ and did 10 unbroken HSPU the first round, but could tell it was going to get horrible. Ten jumps again in the 2nd minute, but only 4 handstand push-ups because time was already running short. I dropped down to 8 box jumps from there and held the 4 HSPU, all unbroken. When I got through 10 minutes that was enough for me. I need to improve my kipping rhythm.

Nasty combination because the hips and low back were getting burned out by both movements. I completed a total of 84 box jumps and 46 HSPU. Would have taken me 6 more minutes doing sets of 4 to get to my 70, which I think was definitely possible. With the workout taking me almost 30 minutes yesterday I didn’t want something long again with even less rest in this.

Setup my area with a rower (no good air bike for this) during the 5 minute rest and got into it. Dubs were solid except for 2 false start misses. Took me 8:48 to accumulate the 100 calories of rowing.

Gymnastics

EMOM

T2B up to 80 reps

Skipped out on this yesterday, but I really need the volume, and since today was an “easier” day I wanted to get it in. My goal was to hold 8 every round, taking me into the 10th minute. I thought I was going to make it all unbroken after I got through the 7th set. Then I had to do 7-1 in the 8th minute. Finished with 5-3 and 4-2-2. So still was able to get in the 8 every minute, but couldn’t keep that many larger sets.

My shoulders are destroyed now!

Work-Rest

Feeling a bit tired today even though I got a great night of sleep. In later at 6pm.

Back Squat

Add 0-5-10 pounds on to last week.

8×45#
8×155
8×225
4×255
3x8x285

I added 10# and it was rougher than I’d like. My quad does not feel very good.

Snatch

Work up to a 1RM.

2x3x45#
3×95
2×135
2×155
2×175
1×195
Miss-make @ 205
Miss 215
Miss 225

Wasn’t there today. The 215 really crashed on me and 225 was way out front.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 6 Sets

6 TnG Power Snatches (135#)

Was surprised to see it bumped up to 6 sets this week. Wasn’t an issue, but my thumbs got a little beat up from re-hook gripping the bar every rep. It was taking me 13-14 seconds per set. Really excited to test out “Grace” and “Isabel” sometime soon.

Conditioning

Alternating between 1:00 of work and 1:00 of rest until finished with the following chipper…

90 Bar Facing Burpees
60 Overhead Squats (95#)
30 Muscle-ups

I scaled the OHS down from the Rx 115# because I was expecting the muscle-ups to take me a long time.

Wow! The rests kept the intensity high. I did 19-17-17-16-16 burpees and the final 5 plus 10 squats. I’ll take that consistency! To finish the squats I did 10-9, 10-8, and 13 to get a little extra rest. In fact I took an extra 1:00 of rest instead of just one here before getting up on the rings. Looking back, I wish I had even just got up there for a set of 3 after the halfway point of the work minute. Oh well, the muscle-ups went much better than I expected. I went 3-3, 4-3, 4-3, 3-1, 2-2, and 2. I really wasn’t planning on getting much more than 3 or 4 per minute heading in.

I wasn’t having a problem getting up over the rings, but my dip started to give out when I only got 3-1. I don’t think I’m kipping the dips much, if at all, and then when I need to kip I’m all out of whack. I’ve never done that volume of reps in a WOD, let alone at the end, so I’m seeing some nice progress.

Finished at 29:07 on the clock. And… wrecked! It was coming up on 2 hours of work so we decided to skip the 80 T2B EMOM. Grip and hands were pretty beat up already and that was enough work for one day. Maybe I’ll get in the reps tomorrow because I definitely need them. Have been eating a bit better, but I needed fuel after this one so made a stop at McDonald’s on the way home.

Rise Up

Rest day and I’m feeling great, but know what’s in store for the next 3 days. Figured I could get in some of the warm-up work I know we’ll skip tomorrow. So I laid a blanket over some of the pillows from my couch.

Landing on the cushy pillow was really nice, but the deeper angles on my wrists wasn’t feeling great by the end of the third set.

5 Sets

8 Strict Handstand Push-ups

These have never felt so easy. The wider hand placement is making a huge difference for me.

GO FALCONS!

Sets of 5

Shoulders feel a little rough from last night. Doing the program by myself today with Bryan and Florida and Weston busy this morning. I got my DNA tested for 41 different fitness related genes and wrote about it on my main blog. Pretty neat.

Warm-up – 2 Sets

5 Strict Pull-ups
5 Strict Chin-ups
20 Push-ups
30 Air Squats
40 Double Unders

No lifting today, but that sure doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

1,000m Row
1:1 Rest

The program called for runs, but I’m not going outside in this weather! My goal was a 1:50 pace, which I was able to do. Even got faster each interval. Far from what I’ve been able to do on the rower in the past when I focused on it. My times were 3:39.9, 3:38.6, and 3:32.8.

For time:

3:00 Air Dyne (AD2)
45 Wall Balls (30#, 10′)
45 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
120 Double Unders

The workout called for 60 calories on the Assault Bike, which I know is a lot harder than the AD2. My 3:00 substitution is probably on the easier side, but was plenty hard enough. I kept about a 75-80 RPM pace and tallied up about 80 calories. It was supposed to be all 90 wall balls with 30 pounds, which I fully intended to do.

I did two sets of 15 wall balls and started to hit a wall, even with longer breaks than I should be taking. Then I was down to sets of 5! I felt like quitting, so after 3 sets of those, I walked over and grabbed the 20# to finish the next 45, which I did 10-10-13-12. Getting started with the dubs was rough, but I settled in once I was able to get my breathing under control a bit. Finished in 12:06. Absolutely horrible. Wall balls after an air-type bike in nasty!

That finished my 4th week following the Hybrid Performance Method WOD program. It’s a pretty big time commitment, lot of volume, and a real gut check on days like today. It’s better than anything else I’ve ever followed though. The way the movements, days, and variety all work together has been really great. When the rest days come, I’m definitely ready for them, but at the same time I’m feeling really good and not running into back issues. Excited to see how we do in the Open.

So Many Cleans

All rested up! Skipped the epically long cardio warm-up that was supposed to be 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of row and bike. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Front Squat

Add 0-5-10 pounds over last week’s 3×6.

6×45#
6×135
6×185
6×215
3x6x245

Not a fan of higher rep front squats like these.

C&J

Work up to a daily 2RM. Try to go 5-10 pounds over the triple from last week.

2x2x135#
2×185
2×215
2×245
2×275 (PR)

Working up in fewer sets is nice, except we could feel our shoulders weren’t quite warmed up where they should be. Legs were great from the front squats. Thought I might try hitting 285, which is basically my max, but wasn’t feeling the jerks. Both jerks with 275 were pretty ugly. PR double though!

Barbell Cycling

3 Sets – E90S

9 TnG C&J (135#)

These were fun! Took me about 26 seconds each set. Piece of cake compared to the 135 pound thruster intervals in the Thruster Attack program. Pretty much like a “Grace” with long rests.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

11 Power Cleans (115#)
7 HSPU

More cleans! Scaled the HSPU down from 11 reps and hoped I’d be able to do 4-3 each round. I started off with 11 unbroken cleans and said to Weston, “probably not doing that again.” Haha. I did the cleans in 7-4 for the next 3 rounds and then did 11 unbroken at the end so I could get back to the wall. Was able to do the handstand push-ups 4-3 the whole way and probably should have taken shorter rests or maybe tried some sets of 7 at the beginning. Scaling to 7 reps was good for me though. Finished with 4 rounds, the cleans, and 2 HSPU. It has been a huge difference going wider and putting more distance between my plates and the wall.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

20s T2B
10s Rest

Originally thought of trying 4-4, but settled on sets of 6 to try to build volume for bigger sets. I was barely able to maintain that every round. Jumped back up in the final round and struggled to get 2 extra reps for a total of 50. I focused on keeping straighter legs today and not doing my bicycle style of toes-to-bars. Felt ok and hopefully that’ll make some difference.

Mostly Burpees

My shoulders are feeling rough from yesterday and my hands pretty much just ache. In at 5:30 with the boys.

Warm-up

Bottom Squat Hold
Shoulder Stretching
10 Reverse Hypers (50#)

Skipped the assigned warm-up again. It’s usually overkill with hold long we are already spending in the gym.

Deadlift

Do 5×7 @ 65% and then a 20RM, adding 5-10# over last week.

14×45#
7×155
7×245
7×295
5x7x325#
20×275

The 20 rep felt much better this week. The heavier sets felt fine too. Don’t get my wrong, I didn’t want to go another set when I was gone, but I didn’t feel the burn quite like I did last week. Back still tightened up a bit.

We decided to skip out on what was supposed to be reverse Tabata Assault Bike. We don’t have bikes anyway and the upcoming WOD would be plenty.

Conditioning

18:00 AMRAP

40 Bar-facing Burpees
4 Squat Cleans at (225#)
30 Bar-facing Burpees
8 Squat Cleans at (205#)
20 Bar Facing Burpees
12 Squat Cleans at (185#)
10 Bar Facing Burpees
16 Squat Cleans at (135#)

As usual I spent too much time staring at the bar when I should have been picking it back up. I was never in any danger of missing, but I didn’t really want to get back to the burpees either. I lollygagged taking the weight off and getting started on the final set of cleans too. I did however do those touch-n-go to finish with 6 of the cleans at 135#. If I were to do this again, I’d finish and get back to the burpees no problem. I need to lose 10 pounds, which will have a significant impact on my movements and fatigue.

Looking forward to the rest day tomorrow and Dad being here for dinner.

Castro threw out a bomb today on Instagram and it’s already creating a stir with affiliates who will need to buy dumbbells. It’s probably safe to assume he’s giving the men’s (50) and women’s (35) loading, but what about scaled and other divisions? I guess it’s easier to come up with dumbbells than it is Concept2 rowers like a couple of years ago. My bet is on dumbbell thrusters. 😷🤒😪🤕

https://www.instagram.com/p/BP-SvTCABJI/

Tuesday Mash-up

Feeling fine after yesterday.

Warm-up – 3 Sets

1 Legless Rope Climb
12 Push-ups
6 Shoulder Press (45#)

Skipped a running part and didn’t do it EMOM. The rope climb felt 10x better than last week.

Conditioning

They call it the “2ewsday Mash-Up” every week.

10:00 AMRAP
- 9 T2B
- 15 S2OH (95#)
- 21 DU
Rest 5 minutes
10:00 AMRAP
- 3 MU
- 9 American KBS (53#)

Put my grips on and damn near broke my wrists trying out a warm-up rep with the barbell. Loosening up the straps and then was fine. In the first AMRAP I got a total of 5 rounds plus the T2B and 10 jerks (5+19). I did my toes-to-bar in sets of 5-4 for 5 rounds and then unbroken the last round. Everyone was smoking me on those, but I can’t hit that failure point or I’m just done and in an instant I can go from a set of 4 to singles. May need to look at how I do my T2B. I did the S2OH as push jerks the whole way and all sets unbroken. At the end I couldn’t hold the bar any longer and had to drop after 10 reps with about 5 seconds left. Better dubs, but shouldn’t be missing at all in sets of 21.

Wasn’t sure how the muscle-ups would go after all that shoulder work, but was much better than expected. Took my time between sets (all unbroken) and never missed until the very end. I got the first rep in my 8th round, then I tried to rush instead of concentrating on my hip drive, and I missed. Or maybe I just timed out all my rest perfectly and that was my failure point. ha! I felt good throughout and was confident I’d get that last set, but decided to rush it for some reason, when I had plenty of time to get the last 2 reps in 10 seconds. The kettlebell swings actually felt like the worse movement. So I finished with 7+1. Two more total muscle-ups than I did in the volume work yesterday.

Shoulders were definitely wrecked when we got done.

More Scaling

The rest day was good yesterday. In at 5:30 tonight. Skipped the assigned warm-up because there was enough shit to get done, especially with 4 of us working in on the lifts.

Back Squat

Work up to 3×8, adding 0-5-10 pounds over last week (70%).

8×45#
8×155
6×205
4×245
3x8x275

My left quad feels a bit like when I couldn’t pistol squat for almost a year on the one leg. The weight was no issue though, even for the higher reps. Really liking how squats have been feeling on this program and have been able to get through without tweaking my back.

Snatch

Work up to a daily 3RM.

3×45#
2x3x95
3×135
3×155
3×175
3×190 (PR)

Missed the first rep at 190 but then got 3 no problem. Beats the triple from 2 weeks ago for a 5 pound 3RM PR. Starting to get a lot more consistent with this type of load, where I’ve typically started to miss, even though I never should considering I can hit them for powers.

Barbell Cycling

3 Sets – E90S

12 TnG Snatch (95#)

Fun stuff! Took me about 26 seconds each set.

Conditioning

10:00 EMOM (alt)

18 cal Row
12 OHS (95#)

I had a feeling this would become horrible and I was right. When I got on the rower for the 4th time I could not put any power into it so I dropped my reps down to 14 calories and 10 overhead squats for the final 2 rounds of each.

Gymnastics

The goal was to get up to 40 muscle-ups, trying to hit a consistent number every minute. When I looked at this I thought in an ideal world I’d be able to do 4×4 and 8×3. After the conditioning EMOM I had high doubts. I did 2 sets of 4 which felt pretty good, but then dropped to sets of 3. After 4 sets of those I decided to call it for the day. My right shoulder was starting to feel weird. 20 reps was good enough for me, especially when we have MU in a WOD tomorrow.