Nick Momrik

Running on Fumes

I was exhausted when I hit the pillow at 10:30 last night, but was wide awake at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Decided I wouldn’t nap today, hoping it will lead to a proper night of sleep. It’s a really windy day so not great for exploring the city when sand keeps getting in your eyes. Went to the fitness center at 11am.

5 Sets

8 Lat Pull Downs (60-60-65-70-75 kg)
8/8 Kroc Rows (65# DB)

I used a pull-up grip width for the lat pull downs, hoping to work the same pulling muscles in a different way.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

8 Incline DB Fly (25-25-30-35-45#)
8 DB Bench Press (65#)

Really had no clue what to use for the fly and obviously started too conservative. The bench presses were challenging though.

10:00 EMOM (alt)

16 Weighted Lunges (30# DBs)
20 Plank Jumps

This got me breathing a lot harder than I expected.

10 Sets

12s RKC Plank
20s Rest

If you do these right you really start cramping and almost feel like you’re going to puke.

10:00 Stationary Bike

Got 225 calories and 6.7 km.

Was in there just over an hour. Was feeling pretty exhausted as I went through this work, especially when I got to the lunges and plank jumps.

Hi From Dubai

Landed in Dubai around 11:30pm last night, got to my Airbnb, showered, and went to sleep around 1:30. I closed my eyes a bit on the Detroit to Paris flight, but didn’t really fall asleep, so all of the sleep I had was the hour nap in the afternoon on Thursday. Long travel “days.” I only got 6 hours in bed last night, but woke up on local time, which is a key to beating jet lag. Went out for breakfast and walked around the marina a lot. Took a 90 minute nap, chilled in my room, and then hit the fitness center at 4.

Warm-up

5:00 Stationary Bike

Did 72 cals and 2.89 km, though I don’t really know if it’s km or miles.

Warmed up seated shoulder presses with ten reps each using 20, 35, and 45 pound dumbbells. Not really sure on the weight of the DBs; each plate is marked and I’m assuming it’s pounds because of the feel, but I guessed another five pounds for the handle.

Strength

4:00 EMOM (alt)
- 15 HR Push-ups
- 10 DB Seated Shoulder Presses (45#)
6:00 EMOM (alt)
- 12 HR Push-ups
- 10 DB Seated Shoulder Presses (35#)

Planned on doing all ten minutes the way I started. I thought the push-ups might be too many, but I did not expect the presses to get so hard that early.

Posterior Chain

Death March

2×20 Steps (25# DBs)
3×20 Steps (30# DBs)

Molly did a ton of these a few days ago and said it lit up her hamstrings. We figured they’d be good for my back issues.

Accessory Conditioning

10:00 EMOM (alt)

35s Handstand Hold (facing wall)
25 Air Squats

I’m really trying to push through my shoulders with these holds. Everything except my hands are right up touching the wall (even my nose). With my hands a bit back I’m hoping it’ll improve my mobility. This got my heart rate up.

Pre-Dubai

My triceps are more sore today. Out in the garage at 11.

20:00 Airdyne

Went 11.96 km and did 575 calories.

Then I did the rehab work.

Took an hour nap a couple hours later and headed to the airport for 20+ hours of travel to Dubai. Back in two weeks!

Rower Projects

This morning I picked up two Concept 2 Model C rowers I “won” in an auction from a local college. They aren’t in as good of shape as I was hoping, especially for what I paid. Thought I might be able to make a nice chunk of change off them, but they’re just going to be a project to break even now.

My abs are more sore and my triceps are getting a little sore. Got to the gym at 1:30. Did an easy 30 calories on the Echo Bike to warm up. Then I practiced handstand walking for 15 minutes or so and it was a shit show. Maybe I’m fatigued from the last few days.

Strength-ish

2 Sets

2:00 Banded Bear Hug March (30# MB)
2:00 Rest

Used a green band and my hips were on fire!

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

10 cal Echo Bike
5 Bench Press (165#)
10 Pull-ups

Warmed up with 10×45 and 5×135 on the bench press. Originally I wrote down 185 but I could feel my triceps in the warm-up sets and didn’t want to miss or have to break up sets. Smart move. Wore grips the whole time and did 2×5 for every round of pull-ups. It’s probably been over a month since I’d done kipping pull-ups. I finished 9 rounds and 10 calories.

Gymnastics

5 Sets

30s Handstand Hold (facing wall)
1:00 Rest

I need to improve my shoulder mobility for the walking, so may start doing a lot of this.

Blowing Up Triceps

Feeling pretty good after yesterday, but I’m sure my abs will start getting sore from those 150 sit-ups after zero in a month. My ass isn’t any extra sore from doing more walking lunges. Went in at 1:30.

Warm-up

50 cal Echo Bike
PVC Passes
Shoulder Stretching

I didn’t realize how tired my shoulders were until I started moving.

Gymnastics

10:00 EMOM

3 MU

If my shoulders weren’t so beat I would have pushed more more reps. I missed the third rep and another attempt in round eight when I was trying to think about delaying my turnover a little bit. Did four reps in the last round to make up for it.

Strength

10:00 EMOM (alt)

2 Parallette HSPU (1 AbMat – 9.25″)
10 HR Push-ups

My shoulders were on the parallettes at the bottom. Really have to concentrate on a deep maximum kip for that much of a deficit.

Accessory

10:00 EMOM (alt)

30s Tricep extensions on Ski Erg
8-12 Double DB Incline Skull Crushers (25#)

We weren’t sure what to do on the ski erg, so started out slow and controlled in the first round, which didn’t feel like it really did anything. So we sped up the pace after that and oh shit! You blow up after 15-20 seconds. Then the skull crushers were so much harder too. I did 12 reps for two rounds and then eight reps the other three rounds.

Was planning to do some handstand walking practice, but my triceps were so blown up I could barely hold a handstand! Maybe tomorrow.

Smart Does Not Equal Fun

My ass is getting sore from the lunges yesterday. Went to 4pm class, but it kind of sucks with how much I’m limiting myself to let injuries heal because I have to sub out almost every movement. Making smart decisions isn’t fun.

Warm-up

100 cal Echo Bike
Zombie Kicks
PVC Passes
Butt Kicks

I jumped on the bike before class with the intention of doing 150 calories again. I just wasn’t feeling it though, knowing I had a harder 60 coming up in the workout.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

12 Walking Lunges (50# DBs)
25 Sit-ups

The strength work was five sets of back rack lunges with the sit-ups. I did the walking lunges so I wouldn’t have load directly on my spine and so I could still load up my legs. Figured I might as well do it for time. Finished in 6:44. I think it’s been a month since I did a sit-up! Since the class got 18 minutes on the clock I had a nice long rest before the programmed met-con.

Buy-in: 60 cal Echo Bike
7 Rounds
- 14 Air Squats
- 7 T2B
- 7 Burpees

The bike was a replacement for rowing 1,000 meters and it took me about 3:50, which is just slightly longer than I would have taken for the row. I did 2x air squats in place of 115# front squats and burpees instead of 70# American kettlebell swings. Turned out to be a good workout and I did all of my toes to bars unbroken. Took me 12:41.

Strict Intensity

Yesterday I was hungover and took a couple of naps. Had to shovel the heavy wet snow, which actually accounted for my second highest WHOOP strain score of the week. Glad it was a rest day, because I would not have been able to fitness. After a solid night of sleep, I woke up with a 96% recovery score! Got to the gym early today for open gym again.

Warm-up

150 cal Echo Bike

Took about 14:25.

Accessory

3 Sets

10 Prone Fly (20# DBs)
10/10 Tricep Kickback (35#)

Gymnastics

15:00 Handstand Walk

Tried to focus on pushing through my shoulders, hands out, and bent knees today. Feeling more and more comfortable each time I practice. Got out to 21-22 feet on my longest one. Here’s my final attempt.

Conditioning

15:00 AMRAP

3 Strict HSPU
3 Strict C2B Pull-ups
12 Walking Lunges (25# DBs at sides)

I like programming low rep strict movements in a workout like this, where it’s a challenge but I’m able to keep moving without rest. After getting round one done in about 40 seconds I was worried it was too fast. Then after not slowing much through about five rounds I set a goal to stay under a 1:00/round page. Even though I started dropping from the top of the C2B and quickly grabbing on for the next rep, I was able to make up time by speeding through step through lunges. Was able to do all of the HSPU unbroken without a problem. Finished with 15+5.

Midline

3x 20 Dead Bug
3x 10 Curl-up (3s pause)
3x 10 Bird Dog + 10 second hold (each side)

Lost Capacity

Whatever was bothering the rib in my upper back was pretty much gone by the time I got home last night and no sign of it today. Good night of sleep, but still sore from early in the week. Out in the garage around noon.

Conditioning

30:00 Airdyne

I did 856 cals and 17.89 km and my average was HR 139 with a 161 max. Not good compared to three months ago when I did 950 and 18.79 with an average heart rate of 136 and max of 150! Have I lost that much aerobic capacity since I stopped the Engine Builder workouts? Or did I just not start out at a hard enough pace?

Midline

Side Plank

3 x 20 seconds w/ 10 second rests (all 3 on one side, then switch)
1:00 Rest
2 x 20 seconds
1:00 Rest
1 x 20 seconds

All About That Pressing Life

All kinds of things started getting sore yesterday and more so today. My body was feeling beat up the times I woke up in the middle of the night. Yesterday was a rest day but I did some rehab stuff that focused on the hip and butt, which took almost an hour. Went to the 4pm class today.

Warm-up

2:30 Run
3 Rounds
- 10 Jumping Jacks
- 5 Push-ups
- 10 PVC Passes
- 5 Shoulder Press (45#)
Bench Press
- 5×45#
- 5×135

Strength Endurance

4 Cycles

3:00 AMRAP
- 20 cal Echo Bike
- 10 Strict HSPU
- MAX Bench Press (135-145-155-165#)
2:00 Rest

All kinds of modifications for me today and for the next week as I try to let my back and calf rest. I did the bike instead of rowing, made the handstand push-ups harder by going strict, and benched instead of doing push jerks. This got really tough. I was pretty consistent with about 73-75 RPM on the bike. I was able to get through three sets of the HSPU unbroken and then 6-3-1 on the final set. My reps per round were 22-17-12-8 for bench press.

Conditioning

EMOM: 5 Burpees
Until the follow is finished:

75 Air Squats
75 Walking Lunges
75 Push-ups

Here’s my modified version instead of 50 reps each of snatches, cleans, and push presses all with 45# dumbbells. When I went down for that first burpee I could already feel the fatigue in my shoulders and chest! It took me 11:55 and it was at about the same time as a couple of other guys so my choices worked out well.

I had planned to stay and practice handstand walking, but a rib in my back felt out of place or something. Plus there was so much pressing that I wasn’t up for it.

So Many Max Rep Sets

Feeling my back a little from yesterday and my shoulders are fatigued. Got to the gym around 12:30.

Warm-up

50 cal Echo Bike

Then we spent forever hanging two sets of rings. There isn’t much extra room for my head in there. This kind of messed with me head for several of the sets.

4 Sets

MAX Deficit Parallette HSPU (2 AbMats ~6.5″)
MAX MU
2:00-3:00 Rest

Our PVC parallettes are about 12″ high so with two AbMats call it a 6.5″ deficit. I didn’t want to start overextending in the handstand push-ups so I wouldn’t call my sets real maxes at all. I stopped well short of failure. I did 4 each time and they felt better than I expected having never done any on the parallettes before. Going right in to the muscle-ups wasn’t the easiest. I did 9-8-6-5 and was hitting my foot on the floor for some of the reps, which did throw me off some. Last February I did 10-7-6-6 going every three minutes, so pretty good today with the pre-fatigue and only one total rep less.

16:00 EMOM (alt)

12 cal Echo Bike
3-4 MU

Like a dumb ass, when I adjusted the rings, I lowered them, so then I started hitting my foot from the very first rep. I waited until we were done to adjust them properly.

I didn’t want to hinge with my back so I used the bike instead of the ski erg, which was probably much easier. I was able to get four unbroken every round except the sixth because I didn’t kip enough on that last rep. Wasn’t jumping up for a single either because I wasn’t confident I’d get four again in the later rounds. This got real terrible, which I guess is the point.

Nice to do muscle-ups again after not having rings or a rig for about three weeks.

DB Z Press

8-8-12-12 (35#)
90s Rest between sets

Did these in a straddle position. Maybe could have gone heavier, but I didn’t want to risk anything with my back.

4 Sets

MAX L-Sit Pull-ups (knees up)
30s Prone GHD Hold

Just blown at this point and did not feel like hanging on the bar. Pussed out on the first set with only five, but then got 7-7-6 in the other rounds. I did the prone hold instead of single leg weighted back extensions.