Author: Nick Momrik

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

What Next Back?

Went to the 5:30 class since it’s bench night

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

I pretty much always do my strict pull-ups chest-to-bar now. Why stop with just the chin over the bar if it’s a manageable number of reps?

Strength

Was supposed to be an alternating EMOM of bench press and Pendlay rows. Since we bench after class I wasn’t going to do more in class. I figured I’d hit some taller box jumps I warmed up with 5 jumps at 24″ and 10×45#, 5×135#, and 2×185# for Pendlay rows. I made it through a round of 5×185# rows and 10 box jumps at 30″. After 2 reps on the 2nd round of rows my back tweaked hard. WTF! Would never have expected to do anything with this movement since the back is pretty much just holding a stable position. Guess I wasn’t doing those movements anymore today, so I switched over to the RH.

4 Sets

  • 10 Reverse Hyper (210#)

Conditioning

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1

  • Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • Pull-ups
  • Ball Slams (25#)

Had a goal to go unbroken the whole way and did. Finished in 7:08.

Midline

Class did a tabata plank hold, so I made it a goal to not rest at all. Made it through the entire 4 minutes to beat my PR old 2:57 hold on the elbows.

No B.S. Bench Press

Week 5 of the program. Shoulders and upper body were already warm from the workout, so didn’t need much to get going.

  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 4x4x215#

It felt like my right arm was lagging behind a hair on some reps, but other than that it was solid and with good speed on the bar.

Showing Up Can Be an Accomplishment

Woke up late. Almost 8am by the time I rolled out of bed. Wasn’t feeling motivated to make it to the gym for 9am, but did because I have to pick up Mom from the airport tonight.

Warm-up

  • 500m Row
  • Bottom Squat Hold

Strength

Stiff-Legged Deadlifts

  • 5×45#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×185#
  • 5×215#
  • 5×245#
  • 5×265#
  • 5×285#

Back squats were on the menu, but still no squatting for me. Sucks! Allows me to focus on a weak part of the legs though, so that’s a positive.

Conditioning

5 Rounds

  • 5 HSPU
  • 7 Power Cleans (135#)
  • 9 Box Jumps (24″)

Didn’t have the energy or motivation to go very hard so I set a goal of doing the cleans unbroken every round. Success! Finished in 7:47.

Accessory

4 Sets

  • 5 Evil Wheels
  • 8/8 Kroc Rows (62#)

Tried not to get the body into the rows and focus on making the correct muscles do all of the work.

Retest After 2 Years

I am feeling those wall balls from 15.3 in my hamstrings and ass! Good turnout today even with several people away and some running St. Patrick’s Day races in Bay City.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Shoulder Stretching
  • Cleans
    • 3×95#
    • 3×135#
    • 3×165#
    • 3×185#

Conditioning

7 Rounds

  • 3 Cleans (205#)
  • 21 Unbroken DU

Did this one 2 years ago at CrossFit Full Strength and it took me 9:14. Today it only took 5:24 and I had a miss on 2 sets of dubs! Did all singles on the bar, but never really took a rest.

5:00 AMRAP
2-4-6-8…

  • Hang Power Snatch (95#)
  • Box Jumps (24″)

Got nasty pretty quick! I finished the 10s and then 12 snatches.

Gymnastics

10 Sets

  • 3 Strict C2B Pull-ups
  • 3 Strict Pause Ring Dips (5s)

Really focused on keeping a tight hollow position in both movements. Wanted to be explosive with my pull-up. Got tough with the longer pause on the dips.

Midline

3x

  • MAX Weighted Plank (45#)
  • ~2:00 Rest

I went 2:15, 1:30, and 1:25.

Feeling Some Shoulders

My shoulders feel beat up and seems like some sort of impingement in the left one that has been creeping up over the last few weeks. Went in for the 10am class.

Warm-up

  • Bottom Squat Hold
  • Ankle stretching
  • PVC pass-thrus
  • Shoulder stretching

Strength

Push Jerk

  • 5×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 3×115#
  • 3×135#
  • 3×155#
  • 3×185#
  • 2×205#
  • 1×225#
  • 1×245#

Conditioning

20:00 Partner Workout

  • Buy-in: 200 American KBS (53#)
  • AMRAP – each do an entire round and then rest
    • 3 Power Cleans (115#)
    • 7 Push Jerks (115#)
    • 9 Deadlifts (115#)

Teamed up with Bryan. We alternated sets of 15 kettlebell swings and then each had a set of 10 at the end. We kept a steady pace on the bar and got 10 rounds each, plus I got 3 cleans before time ran out. The load was good and allowed us to keep the gas on. When the clean weight is lighter like this I’m starting to work on going right from the front rack to the ground instead of making that slight pause back at the thigh on the way down.

Felt like hitting some more jerks after trying to help some folks with muscle-ups.

More Strength

Push Jerk

  • 2×205#
  • 2×225#
  • 2×245#
  • 1×255# (PR match)

For some reason I thought I’d done 260 or 265 before or I would have added more weight to set a PR. Oh well. Strength is there for the jerks, just need confidence and technique work for my split. Definitely going to become a priority once the Open is over and I take a couple of easy weeks to heal up some of this lingering stuff I’m dealing with.

Hit some intervals around 5.

Ski Erg

This was a Hinshaw rowing working, but easily adapted to ski.

4 Rounds

  • 500m (2:02.4 pace target)
  • 1:00 Rest
  • 300m (1:54 pace target)
  • 3:00 rest

My times on the 500s were 2:02.2, 2:03.7, 2:01.6, and 2:01.4. I messed up in the 2nd round thinking I had to be under a 2:04. The 300s were 1:08.4, 1:08.3, 1:08.2, and 1:08.1. Not very hard to hit those paces and I don’t have a true 2k PR, so I based the paces off something 20 seconds faster than I’ve done.

Did Crossover Symmetry Recovery after and one of the bands snapped on my ghetto system!

  

2015 CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.3

I was happy to see what Castro announced for 15.3. Was pretty excited to give it a shot today. Got to the gym a little after 5:15 to start warming up.

Warm-up

  • 1,000m Row
  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • PVC pass-thrus
  • Bottom Squat Holds
  • 1 Muscle-up
  • 5 Wall Balls

Wanted to get that one rep in there since sometimes I fall through on my first one in a workout.

2015 CrossFit Games Open Workout 15.3

14:00 AMRAP

  • 7 MU
  • 50 Wall Balls (20#, 10′)
  • 100 DU

My goal was to get 2 rounds plus at least another muscle-up. I planned to go 3-2-2 on the first set, get a double on the second set and then do doubles or singles, whatever I could do. Planned for 15-15-10-10 on the first set of wall balls or 5 sets of 10 depending how I felt coming off the rings and then sets of 10 for the other round. Hoped to cut myself off at 40 double unders and do 3 sets each round.

Things played out a bit differently and mostly for the better. Easy muscle-ups the first round with 3-2-2, so I went 15-15-10-10 on wall balls, but missed more than I’d like on the rope. Was done in under 5:00 I think when I figured 5:30 was a best case scenario. Went 2-2-2-1 on the rings and 5 sets of 10 on the wall, then a little struggle on the rope again, but 5 sets I think. Finished that second round at 11:37, way ahead of where I expected. Felt decent up there so busted out 3-2-2. Not sure where that came from. I guess I should have trusted all the muscle-up work more because it sure paid off. Then I just tried to get as many wall balls as I could before time ran out and got 27 for 348 total reps. Pumped!

IMG_5717

That was a fun workout and one I’ll try again in a few months.

Oh, and get this, about 15-20 minutes after the workout I did a strict muscle-up for the first time with no problem. WTF! Guess I just need those muscles really warmed up to do it.

Big Drop

My ranking took a big hit with 15.2. I really needed to somehow get through those 14s, but wasn’t close. Down to about 18,102 out of 120,281 of men worldwide for top 15%. Close to my goal of top 14%, but a big drop from 9% after week 1.

Not really that big. 🙂

I was confused by some numbers from 2014, so I went back and looked at the leaderboard and my posts. Looks in the past I’ve calculated percentile placing based on total number of people who have posted at least one score in the Open. But I’m not really sure how the # of men would go down each week, it could only increase. Maybe they have pulled people off the leaderboard in past years. It’s kind of weird. Makes a lot more sense though that I would have calculated like this because so many people drop out each week and the lower ranked folks are the ones more likely to not post a score, which would severely affect my place. So After 15.2 I was really 18,102 out of 140,650 men (see, the # went up from 136k in week 1) who have posted at least one score, not 120k who have posted a score for all workouts. That’s top 12.8% instead of 15% which is a pretty major difference. I’ll have to keep an eye on the leaderboard as the last few weeks go by.

Really hoping this is just a scare tactic and not a hint at pistols since I can’t do any or my right leg with the quad issue. I’d be able to get 1 rep on the left leg, but that’s probably it. I guess if they do program pistols I’ll have to try it out, but I’m not going to risk making it worse. Looking forward to watching Foucher in the announcement tonight; she is one of my favorite female CrossFitters.

https://instagram.com/p/0G5b4Uhoch/

After getting up this morning I went straight out to the garage for some active recovery. So nice to my Air Dyne back. Weather is warming up and didn’t even need to use a heater today.

Air Dyne

  • 40:00

Went 18.53km at an easy steady pace.

Soaring Bench

Sore abs from the sit-ups and GHDs yesterday. Had an appointment at the chiropractor and then went to the 5:30 class.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • 3×15 Reverse Hypers (120#)
  • 2 Rounds
    • 5 Strict C2B Pull-ups
    • 10 Push-ups
    • 15 Air Squats

Strength

Axle Deadlifts

  • 10×115#
  • 10×165#
  • 10×185#
  • 10×195#
  • 10×205#

The first 5 sets were unbroken, but I could only hold on to the bar for 4 reps with 205 and then did the rest as singles, dropping each one. Damn that got rough on the grip really quick. Didn’t want to push any weight and end up tweaking my back again, so the axle bar was a nice change of pace.

Conditioning

30-20-10

  • Plate Burpees (on to 45# HI-TEMP)
  • American KBS (53#)
  • Ball Slams (20#)

They were supposed to be hand release burpees and most of them were, but I didn’t realize I wasn’t doing the hand-release until the 10th rep in and then I know I missed at least a few in other sets. I broke up the 30 KBS into 20-10 but everything else was unbroken. Finished in 9:31.

8 Rounds (Tabata)

  • 20s DU
  • 10s Rest

Only had a miss in 2 or 3 of the rounds. Racked up 280 dubs, which is a 40 rep PR.

No BS Bench

Bench Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×95#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×175#
  • 4x5x205#
  • Max @ 195# – 15 reps

Week 4 so it was time to retest the max rep set. My max reps were 10 in week 1, so that’s a 50% increase! Was not expecting such a jump, especially after a metcon that was rough on the shoulders. I’m excited to see what my 1RM is after the 9 weeks. All of the working sets felt solid.

Pothole Season

Rotating the strength movements at CFi, so Tuesday is squat day now, but still no squats for me with this right quad. I warmed up with Crossover Symmetry Activation.

Strength

Shoulder Press

  • 10×45#
  • 5×75#
  • 5×95#
  • 4x5x125#
  • 5×130#
  • 5×135#
  • 5×140#

Had planned to do all sets with 125#, but it was feeling so good I started bumping up. Still wanted the reps to be explosive without a grind and they were. Kind of surprised since my shoulders are still feeling pretty smoked from the 15.2 attempts.

Conditioning

8:00 AMRAP

  • 3 C&J (135#)
  • 6 Push-ups
  • 9 Box Jumps (24″)

Dropped every C&J, but quick back on it. Probably should have tried to do them touch-n-go since it was only 3 at a time. Everything else unbroken the whole way. First round was done in 40 seconds and the rest were all just under a minute. Finished 8 rounds plus 3 clean and jerks, 6 push-ups, and 4 box jumps.

Midline

5 Rounds

  • 10 Sit-ups
  • 30s Plank

Did the planks on my hands today. Took me 4:39.

More Conditioning

  • 2,000m Row

Thought about going for a PR, so I started out with a 1:45 pace, but just didn’t have the legs after the class workout. Still a decent time of 7:13.8.

Felt like doing something later so hit this in the garage around 5pm.

8 Rounds

  • 200m Ski
  • 10 GHD Sit-ups
  • 40 DU
  • 10 Back Extensions

Had to walk around the Jeep to get to and from the Ski Erg, which ate up some time or else I think I would have been under 20 minutes. Only did one unbroken set of double unders and all the rest had one miss I think. Not very good as far as my dubs go. Finished in 20:27.

No Show

Went to coach the 9am with Kevin in Florida, but nobody showed up. I had no plans to workout and didn’t have any of my stuff, but at least I had on HYLETE pants I could do some things in. Since nobody was there I figured I might as well make use of the gym since I drove out.

Warm-up

  • Crossover Symmetry Activation
  • Glute activation
  • 2×20 Reverse Hyper (120#)

2015-03-09-row

Conditioning

  • 30:00 Row (active recovery)

Nice and easy. Went 6,358 meters.

Accessory

E20S 5:00

  • 5 Push-ups

Got a little energy and felt like doing something more after the row. No struggle even at the end.

I did Crossover Symmetry Recovery and then 3 sets of 15 reverse hyper with 120#.