Nick Momrik

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.

Building

Rough night. Couldn’t get comfortable being so tired. In at 10am today and the other guys said the same thing. Good thing today was on the easier side.

Warm-up

5 Sets – Strict “Cindy”

5 Strict Chin-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Air Squats

I did chins because I could use the extra bicep work.

Conditioning

16:00 EMOM (alt)

12 cal Row
9×24′ Shuttle Run

Supposed to be 20 minutes of row and Assault Bike, but we had to cut short so class could user the rowers and we obviously don’t have a bunch of bikes. Was a nice aerobic piece.

Diane-ish…

5-10-15-20 Deadlift (225#)
3-7-11-15 HSPU
5-10-15-20 Step-down Box Jumps (24”)

Written as 5-10-15-20 for all of the movements, but I’m still building up my handstand push-up endurance so scaled back. Tried some different placement with the plates and AbMat too, going wider and further from the wall. Felt a lot better. I also tried to work on a better kip.

I went 5, 10, 10-5 (or maybe I did all 15?), 12-8 on deadlifts and 3, 4-3, 3-3-3-2, and 5×3 on the HSPU. Probably took too long of rests between handstand push-ups sets. Finished in 10:38.

Rest day tomorrow! Will be nice to be on track with the schedule this week.

Fear the Friday

Feeling alright through the day. Can feel the SDLHP in my upper back and my low back is tight. In at 5pm with the boys. No real warm-up since we had enough shit on the menu.

Front Squat

Work up to 3×6 @ 70%

6×95#
6×135
6×185
6×215
3x6x235

Felt a little rough early but was no issue when I got loosened up.

C&J

Work up to a daily 3RM.

3×135#
3×185
3×215
3×245
3×265 (PR)

Getting so much more comfortable at working up in fewer sets. Felt pretty solid today so went 5# over the last time. If my back wasn’t so beat up from the week I would have gone another set, but I was already starting to feel the jerks.

Kind of crazy today is exactly 3 years since my infamous “pretzel clean” (see post for video) miss with 260#. Doing a triple clean and jerk with more than that was no problem today.

Barbell Cycling

E90S – 3 Sets

12 TnG C&J (115#)

Knew the first set wouldn’t be a problem, but wasn’t sure how the other 2 sets would feel. Was able to hold the same pace throughout. Clock was at 36-36-35 seconds when I looked after each set. This and the snatches have been my favorite part of the week. Legs were feeling like Jello after this.

Conditioning

12:00 AMRAP

25 cal Row
25 Thrusters (115#)
50 DU
50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)

Planned on trying with the Rx 135#, but the 115# that was already on the bar looked just fine. We were all starting to feel the work going into this. It ended up being plenty of weight. I went 10-9-6 on the first round of thrusters and probably should have pushed for 15-10. Missed twice on the double unders and did 20-10-10-10 wall balls. 10-5-7 on the thrusters to finish with a score of 1+47.

Gymnastics

Accumulate 80 T2B
* Each minute should be within 2 reps of the first round.

I felt good in the first set so pushed to 12 unbroken. I know better. Was able to get the next 2 sets of 12, but then I started to hit my wall and only managed 10 broken into several sets in the 4th minute. Got on the bar in the 5th minute, did 1 rep, and called it quits at 47 of the 80 reps. My hips were done and I wasn’t going to do singles the rest of the way. Should have stuck to an original plan of doing 5-5 every minute, which now I don’t even know if I would have been able to finish.

After setting down and watching the guys finish, I could barely walk when I went to git up. Hips were all locked up and everyone else was hurting too. These Friday workouts are rough!