Author: Nick Momrik

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

Sleep Deprived

Been a long week of late nights finishing an electronics project for the family vacation. Didn’t crawl in bed until 3am last night. In the garage around 9:30 before packing the car. Not sure if I’ll make it to a gym at all this week, but hope to for at least one bench session.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 6×135
  • 6×165
  • 3×185
  • 3x3x205

Just an easy 70% for the working sets today. Was hoping it would leave me fresh to push some limits on the shoulder press, but wasn’t sure about the lack of sleep.

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 3×145
  • 3×155
  • 3×165
  • 3×170
  • 3×171.25 (PR)

Shoulder press is such a bitch. I did 3×170 in February of 2016, but barely squeezed out the 3rd with it today, so I went super small on the final increase. I really tightened up and knocked out the triple surprisingly easy compared to the previous set.

Then the damn Jehovah’s came walking up the driveway.

Accessory Superset

  • 3×10/10 Half Kneeling Single Arm Bottoms Up KB Press (30#)
  • 3×10 Landmine Twists (45# + 45#)

I really have to go slow to prevent my left arm from losing control. Made it through the second and third sets without a reset, which I haven’t been able to do.

Time for a week at the lake! I loaded my weight vest and rings into the trunk and plan to run most days.

Not Skipping Pull-ups This Week

Out in the garage around 6:30.

Hybrid Push Only

  • 3×15 Strict Pull-ups (6-5-4, 6-5-4, 6-5-3-1)
  • 3×15 Rack Chins (15#, feet on bench)
  • 3×15 Banded Lat Pull-downs (green bands w/ PVC)
  • 3×15 DB Curls (25-25-30#)
  • 3×15 Tricep Kickbacks (20#)

Couldn’t quite squeeze out that final pull-up, so had to drop. My rests between the set break-down were 5-10 seconds and 2-3 minutes between each 15. Swapped out tricep extensions for the kickbacks.

hard-work-will-soon-pay-off.jpg

Conditioning

  • 1,000m Ski Erg
  • 200 Double Unders
  • 1,000m Ski Erg

My poal was to keep a sub 2:00/500m pace and do sets of 40 dubs followed by rest. The first 1k was done in 3:58.9. I did 2 sets of 40 unbroken, missed at 20 and 29 in the 3rd set, missed at 4 in the 4th set, and got the final set unbroken. Did a 3:56.2 on the other 1k and finished the workout in 11:20.

Bench 5s

Golfed terrible today. Out in the garage after 8pm for a quick session. Figured I’d squeeze in more these last few days before I go on vacation. Start of week 10 and things are starting to deload.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×195
  • 5×215
  • 2x5x235
  • 5×240
  • 5×245 (PR)

Had to grind the last two sets out.

Accessory

  • 3×20 Push-ups
  • 3×15 Shoulder IYTs (CS Purple)

Quick work.

Weak Core

Had an appointment at the chiro and then went to the gym for the 4:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Bar “Hang” Stretch
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 3 Sets
    • 20 PVC Passes
    • 12 Plyo Lunges
    • 10 Ring Rows
  • Wrist Stretch
  • Banded Shoulder Stretch

Ring rows have never felt so easy.

Strength – Front Squat

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 6×135
  • 4×185
  • 2×225
  • 1×245
  • 1×265

Started losing position with the 265 and could feel my back as I walked away, so that was enough squats for me. Live to squat another day. I think I’ve lost a lot of core strength/stability from not squatting in these last 3-4 months. Probably explains why the hollow holds were so hard on Sunday too.

Conditioning

10:00 AMRAP

  • 3 Muscle-ups
  • 10 Push-ups
  • 30 Double Unders

The muscle-ups felt pretty good, but the dips started bleeding fatigue over into the push-ups, which got hard in my last 2-3 rounds. I think I missed once in 2 sets of dubs and 3 times in another set, otherwise unbroken. Scored 7+1, with no misses on the rings. I had to triple kip my 3rd dip in the 7th round, but made it. I did feel something in my left shoulder right away in round one and throughout the workout. Hopefully it’s just from not having done MU in several weeks, because my shoulders have been feeling money.

More PRs

Finally got to golf yesterday. All The Things are sore from the 30 minute EMOM we did on Sunday. I didn’t get in the pull-up workout for week 9 over the last couple of days, so I’m going to skip it and get on the with the next bench day. Too much going on before I leave for vacation on Saturday. Out in the garage with Bryan at 4:30.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 6×135
  • 4×165
  • 2×195
  • 2×225
  • 2×245
  • 2×260 (PR)
  • 2x2x265 (PR)

I actually tried 270 on my last set, not 265, but Bryan helped out way too early so I’ll count it as another 265. I felt like I was going to grind through the rep, but who knows. Did 10 pounds more than I’ve done for a double.

Push Press

  • 10×45#
  • 8×95
  • 6×135
  • 4×165
  • 3×195
  • 2×220
  • 1×240
  • 1×252.5 (PR)
  • 1×255 (miss)

I had 3x1x240 planned, but felt good so went for it again and set the 2.5# PR over the last time. Look at this grind on the 255…

Accessories

  • 2×30 One Arm Farmer Carry steps (110#)
  • 3×10 DB Side Raises (20-20-25#)
  • 3×10 Bent over DB Side Raises (20-25-25#)

Conditioning

10 Rounds (5 each)

  • 10/10 DB OHS (50#)
  • 10 Burpees

Bryan cruised through his squats much faster than me. I did loosen up and get faster after the first round though. We finished at 12:10.

Death EMOM

Went to the gym at noon.

Warm-up

  • Shoulder Stretching
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Pendlay Row
    • 3×45#
    • 3×95#

E3M – 5 Sets

  • 3 Supinated Pendlay Rows with X231 Tempo (95#)
  • 10 OH Bar Shrugs (snatch grip) with 2s Pause (45#)

Could have done this every 2 minutes. Squeezing the bar at the top of the Pendlay row was a challenge.

30:00 EMOM (alt)

  • 10 HSPU
  • 10 K2E
  • 10 Power Snatch (95#)

I wanted to see how far I could get with 5 strict + 5 kipping handstand push-ups. The answer is 5 rounds. In the 6th round I did the 5 strict, but only 2 kips, and then I had to cut back to no strict and 7 kipping reps for the last 4 rounds. Totals out to 30 strict and 55 kipping reps.

The snatches were by far the worst part of this and took the longest, which then left short rest for the handstand push-ups. I thought the knees to elbows would get hard, but I easily did those all unbroken. On the snatches I did 5 or 6 rounds unbroken, then switched to 5+5. In the 9th round I actually lost my grip on the bar but was able to regrip it in midair somehow. So I did 5+3+1+1 in that round and went back to 5+5 in the 10th to finish.

I had on my gymnastics grips, but didn’t put my fingers through the holes, like I’ve seen a lot of the “pros” doing for some workouts. That way I didn’t have to worry about the tightness of the straps causing problems with my wrists on the HSPU or the extra diameter around the bar for snatches. I just twisted them around on my hands for the K2E and then back out of the way for the other two moves. It worked really well!

This is one of the worst, if not the worst EMOM I’ve ever come up with. I had it planned to do at home early in the week, but didn’t get to it. If I hadn’t been at the gym, I would have stopped after 8 rounds, so I’m glad it was with the crew, which pushed me to keep going.

Midline: E90S – 4 Rounds

  • 6 Floor Wipers (holding 45# plate)
  • 20 Russian Twists (45#)
  • 20-30s Hollow Hold

Brandi wanted me to add in some ab work so I went back and found this one from Tia. After the first round I had to do a scaled version of the hollow hold because I could not keep my low back on the ground. I need to get back to doing these because it’s obviously a weakness and not great to be able to support my already bad back.

A 2 Minute Challenge

No golf again yesterday because we got so much rain on Thursday night. Courses are still closed today. So I took a complete rest day. Bryan came over at 1 today. I did an easy 5:00 Airdyne (1.43 miles) to get the blood flowing. I’m swapping the order of the pull-up workout this week since I wanted to have a spotter for this.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 6×135
  • 3×165
  • 3×195
  • 3×225
  • 3×245
  • 3x3x255

That’s my 3RM, which was set about 3 months ago.

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 6×95
  • 3×115
  • 3×135
  • 3×150
  • 3×157.5
  • 3×162.5

Maybe I should do more warm-up sets on these because 150 felt rough but the 2 heavier sets were fine. Next time I’ll have to try an extra set and then do multiple sets at a higher weight. Wanted to get a feel for things today though. 2.5 7.5# under my 3RM.

Accessory

  • 3 Sets
    • 15/15 Pallof Press (CS Blue)
    • 20 alt Incline DB Bench Press (50#)
  • 3 Sets
    • 3×10/10 Tricep Extensions (30#, single arm)
    • 3×10 Landmine Twists (45# bar + 40#)

The lifts too a long time today because we were talking so much. Did the accessory as supersets to speed it up.

2 Minute Challenge

  • 2:00 AMRAP – DU

I got 191 and Bryan got 198. According to BTWB that was a 4 rep PR for me. Started with 81 in a row and hit 100 right at the minute mark, but then started missing over 20-30 reps.

Fight Gone Really Bad

Went to the 4:30 class.

Warm-up – 2 Sets

  • 30 Jumping Jacks
  • 40 Air Squats
  • 20 Toe Touches

Strength – 5 Sets

  • 10 Reverse Hypers (140#)
  • 10/10 Suitcase Deadlifts (62# KB)

Class was doing 10×2 deadlift but I wanted no part in lifting that heavy shit.

Conditioning

“Fight Gone Bad” – 3 Rounds

  • 1:00 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 1:00 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (75#)
  • 1:00 Box Jumps (24″)
  • 1:00 Push Presses (75#)
  • 1:00 Row for calories
  • 1:00 Rest

Didn’t realize the box jumps should have been only 20″, though I’m sure it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. My scores per round were 109-92-90. Only a ranking of 66 on BTWB. Not a good effort. First time doing a legit FGB though. Got 32 wall balls in round one, then 24 and 23 I think. I hate SDHP and tried to be careful with my back. Box jumps were slow, but at least I jumped them all even though I don’t rebound anymore. The push press was much harder than I expected with that weight. Row just sucks at the end of 5 minutes and then one minute of rest goes by so fast.

Five More

Flew home from the conference yesterday and pulled in the drive after 11pm, so it was a rest day. Out in the garage around 4pm to start the 9th week of Hybrid Push Only.

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 10×95
  • 5×135
  • 5×165
  • 5×195
  • 5×215
  • 5×225
  • 3x5x230
  • 3x10x210
  • 3x12x165 (wide grip)

Thankfully this is the last week of these fucking “drop set” 10s!! There was only wide grip bench one other time (3x10x165 about a month and a half ago) in the program and I don’t remember the sets being as horrible as these were. I had such an upper body pump after all these sets. Last time I did all 4 working sets at 220, so today was a 5# increase on one set and 10# on the other 3 sets. I added in the extra 215# warm-up set because I didn’t want to take a really big jump to get where I needed to be.

Accessories

  • 3×10 DB Skull Crushers (20-25-30#)
  • 3×10 DB Side Raises (20-20-25#)
  • 3×10 DB Bent Over Side Raises (20-20-25#)

Conditioning

  • 10:00 AirDyne
  • Rest ~5-10:00
  • 5:00 AirDyne

My plan was to go 15 minutes straight but after about 2 minutes I decided to go for 10. Then after resting I convinced myself I needed to get back on for another 5 minutes. Didn’t time the rest but I think it was closer to 10 minutes than it was to 5.

I did 345 calories (4.05 miles), which is only 12 calories shy of my best. My goal for the 5 minutes was to get 180 plus and I did with 182 (2.07 miles). Went for a 700m walk around the block to cool down but keep my legs moving.