Author: Nick Momrik

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

3 Part Sunday

My back seems pretty much the same. Made it to the gym today though. Programmed something I could do. 🙂

Warm-up

  • 3×10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
  • Dead Hang

Conditioning

Rested about 10-15 minutes between each workout.

  • 50-40-30-20-10 Double Unders
  • 25-20-15-10-5 HSPU

I went 9-8-8 on the first set of HSPU, which was maybe a little aggressive and caused me to have to rest more the rest of the way. I did the rest in all sets of 5 and really focused on a big kip with my hips to save my shoulders. Finished at 9:14.

25 Rounds

  • 2 Burpees
  • 2 T2B

I’d done this once before, almost 3 years ago in 6:08. Hadn’t looked that up until writing this though. Finished in 6:33 today. Could feel I was going a bit slower due to my back. A lot of hip action in this one.

2 Rounds

  • 25 Push-ups
  • 50 Air Squats
  • 25 American KBS (44#)

Felt like my arms would give out after the HSPU and burpees, so I started conservative with 9-8-8 on the push-ups. The squats bothered my back more than anything else today, so I took them really slow. Kettlebell swings were unbroken both rounds. I stuck to the same sets on my 2nd round of push-ups and probably should have pushed for 2 sets. Finished in 6:34.

Quite a bit of midline work today. Will see how my back feels tonight.

Press & Run

It was a good call to drop out of the golf tournament. I’m haven’t felt much different from Thursday all day today and I was really stiff this morning. Out in the garage around 6pm.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×185
  • 5×205
  • 4x5x225
  • 7×225 (max reps)

Maybe could have gotten one or two more if I had someone here to spot me.

Accessory

  • 3×15 Shoulder IYT (CS purple)

Conditioning

Wanted to get in 30-40:00 run today. Went 3.59 miles at a slow pace, which took me 39:46.

Pulling Out Left

I golfed yesterday, but my back is still not great. I tried to get there early to hit the range, but there was nobody in front of our tee times, so we ended up getting off really early and I had almost no time on the range. I was favoring my back and anticipating jolts of pain, so I kept pulling out of my swing and hitting everything left all round. This morning seems about the same as yesterday, so I pulled out of the club championship this weekend. Bummed! 😦 With a 9am shotgun start both days, my back wouldn’t loosen up that early and it was not fun playing yesterday with the anticipation on every swing.

Today’s workouts for the gym had a bunch of barbell work, which I’m not ready for. So I made some adjustments to yesterday’s programming and hit it out in the garage.

Warm-up

15:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 40s Jump Rope
  • 8 Ring Rows + 8 Push-ups
  • 8/8 Single Arm OH Lunges (35# DB)

I like these longer warm-ups. Really work up a sweat and get in more aerobic work.

Conditioning

7:00 AMRAP

  • 50 Double Unders
  • 15 MB Cleans (20#)

I don’t know if I was favoring my back or what, but missed a lot on my dubs. Had a nice burn on the medicine ball cleans. Finished 4+9.

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • 3 Rounds
    • 1,000m Ski (@ 5k pace)
    • 2:00 Airdyne

It was an easy recovery pace on the Airdyne, which was 55-60 RPM for me. I decided on a 2:00/500m pace for the ski erg and kept to it, finishing each 1k in a split second under 4:00. Not an impossible pace for those intervals, but not completely comfortable either. Total time with transitions was 24:25.

An Even 20

Improvement today, but still didn’t feel up for swinging a club. I really wanted to get to the driving range. I’m golfing tomorrow if it kills me! Out in the garage in the evening, but trying to stick to the gym’s programmed workout.

Warm-up

  • 400m Run
  • 3 Sets
    • 20 H2H KBS (35#)
    • 5 Burpees
  • 400m Run

Accessory

E2M – 10 Sets

  • 30s Banded March (green + red bands, 55# plate)

Subbed this for 100’ Double KB Front Rack Carry (50#). I didn’t want that much instability for my back. I really wanted to try marching with the 100# sandbag, but my back didn’t feel comfortable trying to pick it up.

Conditioning

Running clock…

@ 0:00

  • 20 cal Ski
  • 300m Run
  • 20 American KBS (53#)
  • 300m Run
  • 20 cal Ski

@ 12:00

  • 30-20-10 Air Squat
  • 30-20-10 DB Push Press (35#)
  • 15-10-5 Burpee Step up/down (24”)

The first part felt really good. I probably could have tried the prescribed 70#. Finished in 6:03. In the second part I subbed in the squats and push press for DB thrusters and step up/downs for box overs. Already putting enough stress on my back. Finished at exactly 20:00 on the clock, so 8 minutes for part 2.

Sit & Pull

My back is a little better today, but still not great. Out in the garage around 4pm.

Warm-up – 5 Sets

  • 10 Snatch Shrugs (45#)
  • 15 Air Squats
  • 20 Double Unders

The right shoulder was getting stuck from the work I did yesterday. Air squats didn’t feel very good to start, but loosed up a lot after the first two sets. Did them slow and controlled. Double unders were a bit of a challenge.

Accessory – 5 Sets

  • 10/10 Bottoms Up KB Press (20#)
  • 10/10 Landmine Row (55#)

Stayed light because I didn’t want to stress out my back. So I bumped up the set count instead of 3.

Conditioning

  • 36-24-12 Seated Rope Pull-ups (alternate hands every rep)
  • 30-20-10 KB Snatch (35#, switch arms every 5)

This was the workout programmed at the gym and it looked fun, so I wanted to do a variation of it. It was programmed with 6-4-2 (for men) rope climbs at 15′ so the pull-ups were my substitution. I tried to make sure I did 6 back-to-back before taking rests. Normally would have gone heavier on the snatches, but that was good for today with my back. I only took very short breaks to tighten the screw on my adjustable kettlebell. The original workout had a 12 minute time cap so my scaling worked well, finishing at 8:49.

Midline – 5 Sets

  • 20s Bird Dog
  • 10 Single Leg Glute Bridge
  • Switch sides…
  • 20s Bird Dog
  • 10 Single Leg Glute Bridge

Expected the bird dogs to be harder. The glute bridges were not the best choice and could feel them in my back more than any of the other movements from the day.

The Banded March

Last night I think I was already starting to feel some effects of spending an hour on the Airdyne. The front of my ankles were getting tight again and my right knee was feeling a bit weird. My back is starting to feel better today, but had to skip out on golf.

Gymnastics

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s Push-up
  • 10s Rest

I did 6 sets of 11, then 9, and finished with 8. For the sets of 11 I should have been doing 6-5 instead of 11 unbroken because I had a lot of rest time each set. It was all I had to squeeze out 9 and 8 on the final 2 rounds.

Accessory

  • 4×15 DB Curls (20#)
  • 100 Bench Press (45#)

I did the bench presses in 1:39 with short pauses at the top after 67 and 93 reps. Never set the bar down, which I was not expecting to be able to do.

The Banded March

I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time. Since I can’t handle loading my spine, I thought it would be a good way to work my lower body. I put a green band around pegs at the bottom of my rig and hooked up my dip belt. Held a 20# medicine ball at my chest and went for 5:00. Would be fun to try with my new 100# sandbag when my back recovers.

Conditioning

  • 5:00 Airdyne
  • 5:00 Rest
  • 5:00 Airdyne

I started out at 85 RPM. My legs were dying 2 minutes in so my pace slowly kept fading. Maybe I should have rested more after the march, because it felt like the lactic acid built up really fast. Managed to get 170 calories. On the second round I started at 78 RPM for 2+ minutes, picked up to 82 for a minute or two, then kicked it up with a minute left, and brought it home in the least 30 seconds. Got exactly 170 calories again. Not great on either interval considering I can do 340+ in 10 minutes.

During the Finals

My back started feeling worse last night and is definitely worse today. Didn’t loosen up as much as I did yesterday, but tomorrow should be on the recovery side from this tweak. Will have to miss golfing though.

Decided to jump on the Airdyne while watching the finals of the CrossFit Games and ended up going for 60 minutes! Totalled 1,046 calories and 17.64 miles.

Bad But Not Terrible

I had to skip out on the golf outing. Could barely walk in the morning and sitting in the car for over an hour wouldn’t help. It’s the afternoon and I still can’t stand in a golf stance, but my back has loosened up a lot compared to this morning, so it’s nowhere near as bad as the tweak I did during the Open. I’ve started using an aide for helping to realign the spine. Hopefully it helps.

Figured I might as well get back to some bench pressing today. Was going to make it the first day of a cycle of the No B.S. Bench Press program I’ve had great success with before. It’s a nice program because it’s only 1 workout per week. It starts off with a base number and then week through the program adds to that base number with different rep and set schemes. I picked 225# for my base number.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×185
  • 5×205
  • 5×225
  • 4x5x205

After the first set of 225 was rough (I could also feel some stress on my back) I made the executive decision to back off for the 4 other sets and also skip the max rep set. So maybe I won’t count today as the first week of the program.

Conditioning

30 Rounds

  • 30s Airdyne (Fast)
  • 30s Airdyne (Slow)

Put on my headphones and watched the CrossFit Games Clean Ladder live while doing this. Ended up going 10.49 miles (785 cal).

Maybe the Worst One

My legs and ass all still pretty sore from Tuesday. Walked 18 holes yesterday and it took awhile to loosen up. I might even be more sore today actually. My shins and ankles are pretty tight, probably from the box jumps, jump rope, broad jumps, or a combination of those. Out in the garage this afternoon since Alex’s wedding is tonight.

Warm-up – 4 Sets

  • 5 Tall Cleans
  • 5 Front Squats
  • 5 Hang Squat Cleans (above knee)
  • 5 Hang Squat Cleans (below knee)

I did 45-75-95-115#. Holy cardio!

Lifting – 5 Sets

Complex of Clean Pull + Clean + Hang Clean (below knee) + Hang Clean (above knee)

My plan was 135-155-175-195-215# On the clean with 175, my back buckled. It was the worst a back tweak has felt at the time of the incident. Hopefully the after effects are minor, especially with a golf outing in the morning.

So frustrating. I was looking forward to the WOD with HSPU, pull-ups, and lunges too. So instead I had to jump on the AD.

Conditioning

  • 20:00 Airdyne

Went 7.16 miles.

Rip Your Thumbs Off

Sore in a lot of places from the squats and thrusters. Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • 3 Sets
    • 10 Reverse Hyper (140#)
    • 20 Shoulder Taps
  • 12:00 EMOM (alt)
    • 45s Jump Rope
    • 16 Russian KBS (35#)
    • 8 Squat Broad Jumps

Worked up a hell of a sweat from that EMOM.

Strength

Clean Grip Deadlift (hook gripped everything)

  • 10x20kg
  • 10×40
  • 5×60
  • 5×80
  • 5×100
  • 5×110
  • 5×120
  • 5×130

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 4 KB Cleans (44# KBs)
  • 8 KB Front Rack Walking Lunges (44# KBs)
  • 8 Box Jumps (24″)

It was written as 10 rounds with a time cap of 10 minutes and using dumbbells. We don’t have many DBs, so I picked up a set of KBs. It was also supposed to be 6 lunges and I even said before the workout that I was going to do 3 one way and 3 back. But I got in the workout and was doing 8, when I finally realized my mistake in round 5. At that point, I decided to just roll with it the rest of the way. I did all box jumps today but stuck with the 24″ instead of doing the prescribed 30″. Finished exactly 8 rounds. Probably would have been about 9 if I hadn’t done 16 extra lunges and maybe even more if I wasn’t sharing a box.

Extra Credit

Max overhand deadlift hold. We used 225# and did 2 sets without a hook grip and 2 sets with. I got 1:10, 0:45, 0:45, and 0:40. Ouch!