Author: Nick Momrik

I'm searching for my first hole-in-one. I enjoy being active and making things. I work for Automattic.

Another Ben Grinder

Yesterday my left achilles felt weird, but I didn’t notice it while walking 18 holes on the golf course. Could feel it after today’s conditioning too. Must be from the calf raises I did early in the week.

Warm-up

  • Monster Walks

Strength

Back Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×185
  • 5×205
  • 5×225
  • 3×245

Haven’t had any real weight like that on my back since the end of December.

Conditioning

E3M – 30:00

  • 15/12 cal Row
  • 15 Burpees
  • 30 Double Unders

Similar to last Friday, this one is from the old Ben Smith programming.

Round 2018/09/05 2020/05/08
1 2:02 1:52
2 2:01 2:01
3 2:00 1:51
4 2:00 1:48
5 1:59 1:48
6 2:00 1:51
7 2:00 1:51
8 1:59 1:48
9 1:59 1:50
10 1:59 1:47

 

When I did this before I never missed a double under. Today I missed three times in the second round and then once in rounds three, six, and seven (all 1:51). Pulled over 1,500 cal/hour throughout and picked up the pace a little over the last few rounds. Total improvement of 92 seconds over the ten rounds!!

Midline

5 Sets

    • 10 Parallette Shoot Throughs
    • 30 Russian Twists

 

The shoot throughs are much easier when not paired with V-ups!

15 Butterflies

I feel good! Out in the garage at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • 10:00 Airdyne (210 cals, 5.15 km)
  • 15 DB Bench Press (30#)

Strength

5 Sets

  • 15 DB Bench Press (50#)
  • 8 Front Raises (15#)

Conditioning

20:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 15 Pull-ups
  • 6/6 Single Arm DB Thrusters (50/35#)
  • 15 Box Jumps (24/20″)
  • 150m Run

All unbroken 🦋  pull-ups!! I don’t remember the last time I tried a set 15, let alone five sets. This was a good combination of movements.

Gymnastics

5 Sets

  • 1:00 HS Hold
  • 1:00 Rest

Last two were not fun.

Invested in Calves

Yesterday I walked my first 18 holes of golf for the year, which was over 6 miles. Was nice to be outside for so long. Out in the garage at 1:30 today.

Warm-up

  • Monster Walks
  • Steamboats

Strength

4 Sets

  • 10/10 Step Downs (15″, 40# vest)
  • 10/10 Calf Raises (40# vest)

Big jump adding 40 pounds to the calf raises, so I’m sure I’ll feel those.

Skill/Gymnastics Conditioning

E2M – 12:00

  • 50 Double Unders
  • 10 HSPU

This was a good combo. I think I missed 3-4 dubs total. Was able to do every set of handstand push-ups unbroken. Averaged about one minute per round.

Midline

4 Sets

  • 6 Strict Toes to Rings
  • 20 Alternating V-ups
  • 45s Rest

First two rounds unbroken and then 12-8 on the v-ups to finish in 5:51.

No Way!

I mowed the lawn yesterday and didn’t really do much else. Shitty night of sleep because of worries. 🤷🏻‍♂️ My hands are sore from hook gripping and holding the bar! My traps are sore too from shrugged cleans. Went to the Heritage track at 10am and then back to the garage.

Conditioning

  • 800m Walk
  • 400m Jog
  • 400m Walking Lunge
  • 400m Walk

After all of the plyo lunging, I’ve been wanting to give the 400m lunge a retest. Beautiful morning for it.

IMG_4374.jpeg

Last October my time was 10:39, when I alternated between 20 step-through lunges and 20 bringing my feet together. My goal was to go sub 10 today, by doing 30 step-throughs followed by 10 with a feet gather. I was surprised how great I felt at 100 meters and knew I was flying. As I rounded the final corner I turned to see where Brandi was and she was not far behind me! So I pushed it doing a final 62 step-through lunges without stopping. My time was 8:47!!! Holy Fuck I couldn’t believe it.

Strength

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 6×145
  • 3×185
  • 3×205
  • 3×220
  • 3×230
  • 3×240
  • 3×250
  • 1×262.5

Went for a PR, because why not, but it came off the rack weird so I called it after one rep.

Midline

E2M – 5 Rounds

  • 16 Alternating V-ups
  • 16 Heel Reaches (leg lifts without lowering legs to the ground)
  • 12/12 Side Plank Bounces

Another good one from Kristi. I did my side plank bounces with my hand on the ground.

Accessory

5 Sets

  • 30s HS Hold (try to take feet off the wall)
  • 30s Rest
  • 30s Banded Curls (blue band, last 4 sets with fat grips, ~25 reps)
  • 30s Rest

Now the 500

Yesterday afternoon I did about two hours of yard work, which probably didn’t help the back tightness I’m feeling this morning.

Warm-up

5:00 Airdyne (95 cals, 2.46 km)

Time Trial

500m Row

Could I beat 1:23.5 from January of 2016?

2020-05-02-500m-row.jpg

Yes! I was 0.5 seconds behind pace at the 400 meter mark, but not completely dying in the final 100 pulled out the 0.3 second PR!

Weightlifting

Power Clean

  • 6×45#
  • 6×75
  • 3×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 10:00 EMOM
    • 3×155

Wow, it’s been awhile! Didn’t want to get crazy, but get the feel for a bar again. I did all touch-n-gos on the warm-ups. Started out doing quick singles in the EMOM for five rounds and then did TnG for the other five. Felt good to move some weight again.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 30 Push-ups
  • 15 Deadlifts
  • 700m Run (around the block)

I  decided ty try larger sets of push-ups than normal since there was a big break with the run; did 18-12 each time. I did 8-7 for deadlifts with a few breaths. Seemed like I was able to push the run a little today. Finished in 14:20.

After lunch I’ll mow the lawn and maybe try out an idea for a muscle-up location. May do some rehab tonight.

A Grinder from Ben

My triceps started getting sore yesterday afternoon. I took a break from work in the afternoon for some bodyweight step downs and banded wood chops. In the evening I did 10-8-6 of the McGill Big 3. Today starts another three day weekend for me, which has been a nice reset every few weeks during this weird time we’re living in.

Warm-up

Monster Walks

Conditioning

E4M for 40:00

  • 20 cal Row (goal pace: 1,500 cal/hr)
  • 15 Burpees
  • 40 DU

This is from late 2018, when the gym followed Ben Smith’s programming. I really miss his workouts! I’m five pounds lighter, so could I go faster?

Round 2018/11/07 2020/05/01
1 2:10 2:06
2 2:13 2:08
3 2:15 2:09
4 2:11 2:08
5 2:13 2:12
6 2:13 2:10
7 2:12 2:09
8 2:17 2:09
9 2:13 2:08
10 2:11 2:04

💥 💥 💥 Damn right! Faster every single round for a total of 45 seconds.

Last time I did this workout I tried to keep > 1,400 cal/hr and today I was able to do over 1,500, while still keeping a solid pace on my burpees. My only misses on the rope were two back-to-back misses in round five with about five reps to go. This workout is such a grinder.

Gymnastics / Midline

3 Rounds

  • 20 Pull-ups (10 kip, 10 butterfly)
  • 20 V-ups
  • 60 Hollow Body Flutter Kicks
  • 1:30 Rest

Wore grips and chalked up before starting. The pull-ups felt good and happy to be able to do six sets of ten unbroken between the two styles. The core work got rough after doing the first round unbroken; I had to do 4×5 v-ups and 3×20 flutter kicks. Took me 9:14 to finish.

First Back Squat Since December

Another early night in bed and another night getting a lot of sleep. Maybe I’m on to something. Out in the garage at 4pm.

Warm-up

  • Steamboats

Strength

  • 10 Back Squats (45#)
  • 5/5 Landline Rows (45#)
  • 10 Back Squats (95#)
  • 5/5 Landline Rows (65#)
  • 5 Sets
    • 10 Back Squats (135#)
    • 5/5 Landmine Rows (75#)

I haven’t done a back squat since December 23rd! Body didn’t know what to do, especially for 10 reps.

Update: not entirely true because I did light Bear Complex two weeks ago, which involves a thruster from the back.

Conditioning

3 Rounds

  • 20 Push Jerks (75#, from the rack)
  • 20 Russian KBS (53#)
  • 20 HR Push-ups
  • 20 Plank Jumps

I did the jerks unbroken in the first two rounds and then rested it on my back after 10 reps in the final round. The push-ups got a lot harder than I expected. I think I started out 2×10 and then 4×5 the other rounds. Finished in 8:42.

Also did some floor and banded rehab, which I’ve been slacking on.

Point One Away

I did not sleep great on Sunday night and I’m sure having a large Coke from McDonald’s at 9pm was the main contributor to that. Yesterday I went out and messed around for 5 holes of golf. Felt great to be out on the course! In the afternoon I felt my pecs getting sore from the 100 toes to bars I did Sunday. My quads were still sore from Saturday too. Planned to do PT work, but it didn’t happen. Went to bed early again and got over 9 hours of sleep. Out in the garage at noon after my weekly video call.

Warm-up

  • 3:00 Airdyne (63 cals, 1.58 km)
  • Monster Walks
  • Shoulder Press (done after row)
    • 10×45#
    • 5×75
    • 5×95
    • 5×115

Time Trial

250m Row

2020-04-28-250m-row

So close to matching my old 38.3 PR from July 2016. If I could have started like I did for my 100m PR the other day I would have had it. Thought about making a second attempt, but I was breathing hard for several minutes and decided to move on.

Strength

5 Sets

  • 5 Shoulder Press (130#)
  • 8 Lateral Raises (15#)

Felt strong throughout and was able to keep a solid core.

Conditioning

2 Rounds (2:00 work, 1:00 rest)

  • Strict Pull-ups
  • Squat Jumps
  • DU
  • Burpees

I got 29-27 pull-ups, 57-66 squat jumps, 164-176 double unders, and 34-39 burpees. The wind coming through the back door was messing up my rope, I shit you not! Took me until about thirty seconds through round two to notice. This has happened to me out in the driveway before. Thrilled for all the numbers to go up in the second attempts, other than pull-ups, which is understandable. For pull-ups I think I went 5-3-2 then singles in the first round and 7×2 then singles in round two.

Surprising Row PRs

I did housecleaning all morning and took a break around 2pm.

Warm-up

5:00 Airdyne (103 cals, 2.55 km)

Time Trials

My BTWB rowing speed scores are way off due to intervals counting, which throws off my fitness level, so I’m going to do some rowing tests this week.

Row

  • 100m – 15.1
  • 100m – 15.2
  • 1,000m – 3:09.9

That’s a PR for 100m by 0.4 seconds (back in Dec 2015)!! I used 7.5 on the damper first and then maxed it out to 10 on the second try. Reset it back to 5 for the longer row. I looked up my old 1k time, which was 3:11.2 from March 2015. So I set a goal to hold 1:35 as long as possible. Felt good at 500 meters and then it started to hit me with about 300 to go. Was able to hold on for a 1.3 second PR. I really didn’t expect a PR from either row. I’d say all of the single leg work is paying off since I haven’t done much rowing all year.

Really good splits for the 1k!! I was fucking wrecked after that and rested about a half hour!! Can you say Fran Lung?

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 25 T2B
  • 700m Run (around block)

The original version had 25 burpee and 20 toes to bars each round, but I adjusted after the rowing. Went for larger sets and surprised myself by being able to do 9-9-7 every round. First three runs were pretty chill and I picked up the pace on  the final one. Finished in 23:36.

Then I had a really late lunch and finished housecleaning.

Legs Legs Legs Legs

With a lot of reps on Tuesday and Thursday that hit the low back, I knew not to hit that area very much today. Didn’t sleep worth a shit, so I rested up, took a nap, and worked out in the afternoon.

Warm-up

  • 5:00 Airdyne (97 cals, 2.48 km)

Conditioning

4 Rounds

  • 50 Lunges
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 30 Plyo Lunges
  • 20 Squat Jumps

I did this in 20:57 back on December 29th, a few days after tweaking my back. Tried not to stop much today and was done in 17:37!

That’s enough for today with how I’m feeling.